The Kenya National Highways Authorities yesterday threw a lavish birthday party to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Thika Road foot bridges that are at different stages of incompletion.
In the event that was graced by various stakeholders involved in the project – Treasury, brokers, contractors, hawkers, kick back facilitators and corruption experts – KENHA said that the project had proved to be a cash cow and had kept everybody engaged over five years at a small cost of few pedestrians who die every day.
KENHA highlighted the importance of the project saying that they continue to note that more than 2000 pedestrians have been knocked down by vehicles since construction began while trying to cross the road. “This shows that once we complete this project in the next five years, we will be saving 400 lives every year.”
The Director General said that the project had proved to be lucrative since the overpriced cost and long delivery period has enabled various people in the corruption chain to invest the money for the project and earn interest before they can embark on the work. He also said that it was tough sustaining consistent lies to Kenyans on why the bridges were taking five years to build while a more complicated overpass by KURA took a few months. “We have had to keep inventing new lies to tell Kenyans and luckily, they have other bigger problems they need to deal with.”
The bridges which were to be fabricated in China according to the initial lies are being assembled on site and have a lifespan of 6 years from the day the project began. This will allow KENHA to float another tender for the same so that more people can eat.
KENHA is also hoping that once the footbridges are complete, the new problem of extreme traffic congestion at Pangani for inward bound vehicles will justify creation of another overpass that will be the most expensive in Kenya and that will take a lifetime to build.
