Lari MP Jonah Mburu has said construction work of the Mau Mau road is at 55 per cent, reviving hope for Kiambu county farmers.
Mburu added that the Ministry of Roads expects the contractor to have done 85 per cent by December.
Tea farmers led by Peter Mbugua exuded confidence that once the road is done, tea hawking will be a thing of the past.
Many farmers started selling to private buyers because factory lorries were unable to pick tea leaves from their farms.
“A lot of farmers resorted to tea hawking to make quick money because of the bad roads,” Mbugua said.
Farmers and traders from Lari Kirenga, Kamburu and Nyanduma will access the market easily once the road is done.
They said their main challenge is the poor road network, since the roads have no tarmac making it difficult to transport their produce to the market.
“When it rains, very few vehicles come to collect milk especially in Kamburu and Nyanduma. At times we are forced to dispose it or feed it to dogs and pigs, it is a highly perishable product,” Solomon Njenga, a dairy farmer said.
“The roads are also bad and during the dry seasons because they are full of potholes and rough leading to vehicle break down most of the time.”
Mburu lauded President Uhuru Kenyatta for initiating works on the 500km Mau Mau road which will link four counties in the Mount Kenya region at a cost of Sh27 billion.
The road will traverse Kiambu, Murang'a, Nyeri and Nyandarua counties.
“We did not have tarmac roads in this constituency, we are so happy that we not only have Mau Mau road cutting through our constituency, we have also benefitted from feeder roads which connect to two major highways; Nairobi-Nakuru and Nairobi-Maai Mahiu ,” he said.
The MP spoke on Tuesday at Kagaa.
