The construction of the 113.5km Minjila-Mokowe road, albeit taking longer than anticipated, has brought economic and social transformation to residents along the Lamu-Garsen corridor over the last five years.
The construction has been delayed by a combination of factors such as militant attacks and unpredictable rains among others.
However, with 94 per cent of the Sh10.8 billion road complete, it is only a matter of time—about one month more according to resident engineer Willis Ingari— before the road is fully done.
Ingari said the road has been one of the most challenging in his years of service as an engineer.
And it all begun on the wrong footing.
“The project stopped for about nine months as soon as it started due to insecurity,” said Ingari on Tuesday.
The project started in December 2017, but the attacks meant it had to stop. Works resumed around September 2018 when Kenya Defence Forces took control of the area and significantly improved security.
In that period, there were 26 different explosions caused by Improvised Explosive Devices set up by al Shabaab militants, who were against the construction of the road.
The dilapidated road worked to their advantage because they would take advantage of the slow movement of the few vehicles that used the road to attack Kenyans.
The untarmacked road also made it easier for the militants to dig and put IEDs on the road.
Ingari said his family put pressure on him to quit working in the area because of the attacks.
He however his patriotism would not allow him to abandon the project, and wanted to help build peace in Kenya in his own small way.
Farmers living in Lamu, Hindi, Mokowe and other parts of the corridor now have every reason to smile as the tarmacking of the road, the first one in Lamu, is translating to economic gains for them.
Hawa Muhtara Abdi, a farmer who transports milk to Garsen from Lamu, said before the road was constructed, she used to spend a day just to transport the milk. “Our milk would go bad on the road,” she said.
Now, she makes up to three trips per day, raking in thrice as much as she used to before the tarmacking of the road.
“Before, I used to make about Sh3,000 profit in a day. Now I make as much as Sh10,000 in a day,” she said.
Her sentiments were echoed by Mulei Kinga’ng’a, also a farmer at Salama.
He said in the past, some of their farm produce including maize, cashew nuts and groundnuts, would not get market because of the poor road.
“There was no one coming to buy the produce because everybody was avoiding this road,” said King’ang’a.
He said the security threat from al Shabaab militants, who used to take advantage of the poor road network to waylay people, also kept people away from the area, and consequently, their produce.
“This road has helped us. We now feel we are in Kenya. This place is no longer Lamu. It is like we are in Nairobi,” said King’ang’a.
Joseph Kamaru, a security guard working for a local security company, has been in the area for four years now.
He says before the road was tarmacked, getting reinforcement from the station was a problem whenever there was a security issue.
Reinforcement used to take hours to reach the targeted area. At times, it never came at all, the excuse being the poor state of the road.
“Now, transportation has become easier. When you call for reinforcement it arrives within minutes,” he said, adding that going to Witu takes a significantly shorter time than before.
Ress Hassan from Ijara, has lived in Pangani, Lamu West since 2009. He said when he came, there was no peace or security because of the poor road network.
“The road was impassable. Transport was a challenge and it took long to get to Mombasa by road. All this has changed,” he said.
Hassan said the launch of the Lamu port in May has increased traffic in Pangani, which is witnessing an increase in the number of shops coming up.
“We have seen more people in Lamu and these people now buy goods from us,” said the farmer who also runs a shop at Masha Masha.
Government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna said the road will open up the northern parts of Kenya for business.
Livestock farmers in the northern parts of Kenya will be the biggest beneficiaries as the road will now be used to access the Lamu port and markets abroad via the sea at a cheaper cost than before.
Ingari said the only section remaining is a 19km Mpeketoni loop, which starts at Kibaoni and goes through Mpeketoni and joins the main road again at Mkunumbi.
At Kibaoni, there is a 300-metre stretch that is yet to be completed and another 1.8km stretch at Mkunumbi.
Of the Sh10.8 billion allocated for the road, some Sh9.2 billion gross has been certified for work done.
“There is a Sh302 million debt that is yet to be paid but is within the payment time limits,” said Ingari.
The resident engineer said the works were set to be completed at the end of June but due to the rains, there has been some delay which has pushed the completion date to end of July.
Even after the threat of al Shabaab was neutralised by the KDF, the road has not been without other challenges, according to Ingari.
Six box culverts had to be constructed to allow for sea water to pass under at Milihoi, on the 89-km mark of the road.
A box culvert is a rectangular structure constructed underneath a road to allow for water (or animal crossings) to flow under the road from one side to the other without impeding the flow of traffic.
“When there is high tide, water from the sea flows to the road and that was presenting a major challenge. So we upgraded the existing culverts. The sea now will not have any effect on the flow of traffic,” said Ingari.
The gradient of the road means one would be moving uphill from Mokowe in Lamu county to Minjila in Tana River county.
At the end of the road at Mokowe, the road is 2m above sea level while at the beginning at Minjila, it is 20m above sea level.
“That means the drainage on the road is a challenging matter and we have put a lot of culverts. Right now we have done 132 cross-drainage culverts and we are yet to put the access culverts, which is work in progress,” said Ingari.
He said towns like Hindi and Mokowe will have major drainage inputs and service roads for non-motorised traffic amenities.
A road safety audit will be done to enhance the safety measures.
The national park at Koreni in Lamu county means there are a lot of wildlife crossing the road, which will necessitate road signages to warn motorists and speed detectors to monitor and control traffic.
“So that wild animals, which have the right of way, can cross safely,” said the resident engineer.
Vision 2030 director general Kenneth Mwige said the road is one of two main trunk roads which are supposed to provide the off-take from Lamu port which he said the government is undertaking at the moment.
The road from Lamu, passes through Ijara, Bura, Garissa, Isiolo then north to Marsabit and Moyale.
Then the other goes across to Samburu, Baringo, all the way to Lodwar, Lokichogio and Nakodok, which is at the border with South Sudan.
“There are plans to do another one from Isiolo going up towards Mandera. And with those three roads—one going to Mandera, one in the middle going to Moyale and the other one going to Lake Turkana—this port will be able to serve South Sudan, Ethiopia directly and even Somalia on the other side,” said Mwige.
-Edited by SKanyara