Petition filed over poor construction, design of Junction Mall Flyover

The Kenya Urban Roads Authority Director General Silas Kinoti is on the spot over gross violation and flaunting of the law. A petition filed at the human rights and constitution division of the high court by a resident of Nairobi Patrick Kibe, Kinoti has been accused of overwhelming illegalities, irregularities, and circumvention of the law as the Roads Authority director general.

Amongst the ills, the DG is accused of are incompletion of the Junction Mall area flyover which Kibe states lacks critical components for the pedestrian walkway, drainage systems, and access ramps that remain unfinished which puts the lives of pedestrians at risk as they are left to walk on the road.

According to Kibe, KURA should have focused on the redesigning of the Ngong road to reduce accidents instead of beginning new projects which are not of the required standard.

The petitioner said that the work which is funded by a Spanish Concessional loan in the tune of billions has been done in a substandard way.

“The quality of work done so far is substandard evidenced by cracks and effects in the already laid foundation, inadequate structural reinforcement that compromise safety, and poor drainage causing waterlogging near the construction site endangering motorists and pedestrians.” The petitioner stated.

Kibe says that the budget appears to have been grossly inflated to similar projects in other urban centers.

He has raised an issue of the tender being awarded to a company related to top officials at KURA adding that the process was not competitive and transparent.

“Lack of publicly available documents on the procurement process violates article 35 of the constitution. There is no doubt that the tendering process was not competitive and transparent raising the question about favoritism and kickbacks.” He stated.

The petitioner accused Kinoti of failing to demonstrate the value of money incurred as the flyover remains unusable with delays extending the project timelines to an indefinite time.

He called on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to move with speed and bring the people involved in this into books.

This comes days after KURA DG was brought on the spot over an alleged overpayment of Sh687 million to a contractor.

The controversial expenditure was made for incomplete roads and bridges construction works in favor of Cementers Construction Company for works initially budgeted at Sh892 million.

The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy, chaired by Pokot South Member of Parliament (MP) David Pkosing has since launched investigations into what they suspect to be a calculated scheme to embezzle taxpayers’ money.

Shockingly, while appearing before the committee, KURA Director General Silas Kinoti informed lawmakers that the contractor is pushing for a mutual termination of the agreement, citing unforeseen challenges.

The committee has since commenced investigations into the suspected misappropriation of funds through payments advanced to a contractor for incomplete works.