Murang'a MPs want President Ruto to prioritise Mau Mau roads

Two Murang’a MPs have asked President William Ruto to prioritise the completion of Mau Mau roads project to ease residents’ suffering.

Kigumo MP Joseph Munyoro and his Kangema counterpart Peter Kihungi said their constituents have suffered for long as they waited for the now degraded roads to be completed.

On Wednesday, the two MPs accompanied roads engineers to assess the damage on the roads.

The government started the Mau Mau roads upgrade project in 2018. The roads were main;y used by Mau Mau veterans as they went in and out of their Aberdare forest bases during the anti-colonial struggle.

The project was started by the Jubilee government in honour of the fighters and to develop in areas neighbouring the forest.

But in 2022, the Sh30 billion project that covers Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyandarua and Nyeri counties stalled due to lack of funds.

Roads that had been graded were left at the mercy of the rainy weather and eventually became muddy and full of potholes.

Kihungi said it would be wrong for the government to allocate funds to new projects while the Mau Mau roads remained incomplete.

“Now that the President is in China, some of the funds he will get from the visit should be channeled towards the completion of this project because our people have suffered for too long”.

Ruto pledged to set aside Sh1 billion for the project during his visit to Murang’a last month.

But Kihungi said, despite the pledge, no progress has been registered as residents continue to use the dilapidated roads.

“We will not relax until we are sure that that money has been channeled to Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA),” he said.

“The government should have left the roads the way they were before because they were still passable instead of starting the project and leaving it half-way,” he said.

Munyoro said development in the areas where the roads pass has regressed over the years owing to their poor state.

“People are forced to follow routes that are much longer to get to the tarmac and their daily activities have been seriously affected.

“If these roads are not done, I don’t know how our relationship with the government will be,” he said.

Out of the 540km, 154km are in Murang’a county, with 130km in Kangema and Kigumo constituencies.