Kenya launches Sh149bn strategic plan for new roads

The Kenya Roads Board (KRB) has launched a Sh149 billion strategic plan which aims to build, rehabilitate and expand roads in the country.

Dubbed Roads 2000 Strategic Plan 2013-2017, the plan that was unveiled last week in an event graced by President Mwai Kibaki proposes to use locally available materials to build roads in Kenya’s 47 counties in the next five years.

The strategic plan targets to build more than 1,000 kilometres of new roads, rehabilitation of over 2,000 kilometres and periodically maintain 12,221 kilometres of roads across the country. It also targets more than 34,000 kilometres of roads to be routine managed on a yearly basis.

According to KRB Executive Director Francis Nyanganga, the plan will be implemented using Do-nou – a Japanese technology that uses corbal stones and other materials available locally within the road construction areas.

“Do-nou involves wrapping soil, sand or gravel in sacks to raise embankments on flood prone roads instead of constructing gabions. The technology has been used in the past one year to build over 7,000 km of roads at a cost of Sh5.8 billion – making a saving of Sh1 billion,” said Nyanganga.

The blueprint, which will be implemented by the Kenyan government in partnership with the World Bank, International Labour Organisation, Africa Development Bank,  European Union, and the governments of Finland, France, Germany and Sweden, has a labour component of as it create numerous jobs annually across the country.

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