Residents of Booster Uhuru village in Tumaini, Ol Kalou Constituency in Nyandarua County held a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday, accusing a local contractor of using substandard materials for the construction of a 2 km stretch.
Barely a day after residents of Charagita took to the streets to protest the poor status of the Charagita-Boiman road, angry residents of the Uhuru Booster area also followed suit, demanding the completion of a 2 km road that has been rendered impassable by the shoddy work done on the road.
Our visit to the site showed how difficult it is for the users of the road since the contractor used machine-cut stones that are usually used for the construction of building walls on the road instead of hardcore.
The residents who spoke to media lamented that despite numerous promises from the local leaders of completion of the affected road, it is now becoming like a norm, as no action has been taken so far.
“The contractor for this road came here two months ago; he put these stones here. We thought he would break them up into small pieces and spread them evenly so that the road could be passable, but to our surprise we don’t see him anymore,” one resident lamented.
They now want the county government of Nyandarua to order the contractor to use the right material for the work or return to the site and compact machine-cut stones that have been lying uncompacted for two months now.
“We have no problem with any leader; we just want them to fulfill their promises and for this corruption to stop completely. We, the citizens, are the ones suffering,” added another resident.
Uhuru is one of the agriculturally rich areas in Olkalou and is known for the production of milk and a variety of horticultural produce.
Farmers say the cost of production has gone up due to poor roads.
Written by Laban Muhinda
