Maintenance Of Roads: The Role Of #Whatisaroad

There’s birth there’s death and in between there’s maintenance. — Tony Robbins.

Roads are essential for the movement of goods and people from one place to another. They provide access to homes, businesses, farms, places of interest and act as a link between other modes of transport such as air and rail. Maintenance of these roads is necessary due to the effect of vehicle use and climatic conditions which cause deterioration of the road with time. Maintenance ensures that the road is kept in good condition to provide safe, convenient and efficient travel on it.

Which organizations are in charge?

In Kenya, The Kenya Roads Board under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure coordinates the development, rehabilitation and maintenance of all roads. It oversees maintenance through the disbursing of maintenance funds which is composed of Road Maintenance Levy Funds(RMLF) and transit tolls to the institutions in charge of the maintenance. Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) is collected from a charge for use of petroleum products.

Previously, counties were not funded from the maintenance fund for maintenance works. They were included in the fund after winning a court case against the Road agencies/National Government. The roads allocated to counties came mainly from KERRA and KURA.

The institutions in charge of maintenance of the roads using RMLF funds are;

· KENHA- Kenya National Highways Authority is in charge of the management, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of primary national trunk roads. These are classified as Class A, B and C.

· KURA — Kenya Urban Roads Authority is responsible for the management, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads within urban centers not under the jurisdiction of counties..

· KERRA — Kenya Rural Roads Authority is responsible for the management, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of rural roads (D, E & Others)

· COUNTIES — The counties are in charge of management, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of major and minor feeder roads connecting important constituency centers(E and F) and class G roads linking farms to markets and urban collector roads (connecting estates to bus route roads).

· KWS — Kenya Wildlife Service is responsible for the management, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads within the national parks.

How are roads selected for maintenance?

KRB prepares an Annual Public Roads Program which is available on its website showing all roads to be maintained in that year. This is usually based on the submitted Annual Road Work Plans submitted from each of the agencies above and cover the whole country.

For KENHA, KURA and KWS, the annual work plan is supposed to be based on Annual Road Inventory Condition Survey (ARICS) and Road Sub-Sector Investment Program. For KERRA, they also include an input from the Constituency Roads Committee which was set up in the Finance Act of 2009. The counties are also expected to use the same methods to prioritize roads to be maintained yearly.

The ARICS shows the road, the defect including the description of the defect, size, extent of damage, priority rating and the remedy. This ensures need -based prioritization of the roads to be maintained yearly.

Challenges

However, it has been noted that politics plays a major role in the selection of roads to be done. Other challenges in the implementation include procurement malpractices, funding inconsistency, poor quality of works, delay in implementation of works and under-staffing.

The most affected agency due to political influence is the Kenya Rural Roads Authority. This is because selection of the roads includes input from the Constituency Roads Committee (CRC). This committee sometimes selects the roads based on political affiliations leading to some roads which are in dire need of maintenance not being included.

In Nairobi and other urban centers, most of the roads have been given to the County Government. KERRA has also ceded several roads to the County governments due to the court case above and provisions in the Kenya Road Bill 2015. Given the challenges faced due to the politics, poor procurement practices and low quality of works noted above, it is important that the works are checked to ensure proper selection of roads prioritizing those in a poor state rather than selection based on political influence.

What can we do?

What can we do as residents of this city and in other areas? We can lobby our leaders — Governors, Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) and ward administrators to have selection based on actual defects rather than political influence.

For those in areas covered by KERRA, get to know which roads the CRC selected and whether they were based on proper selection criteria. Get to know the members of the CRC and lobby for the roads that need to be done.

That is why #WhatIsaRoad is important because it not only shows the defect but also the location and this can show the need for prioritization of that road for maintenance based on the number of defects reported.

This is not just for potholes but also includes side drains, kerbs, pedestrian walkways, bollards, road signs, road markings etc.

One can also report to #WhatIsaRoad if there is evidence of poor quality of works such as potholes cut and left open for too long, poor application of bitumen etc. One can check the signboards at the start and end of the roads to know the agency in charge. The signboards have the name of the road, the agency in charge and the name of the contractor.

If you’ve been about town, I’m sure you’ve seen jacaranda flowers and also contractors setting up on roads such as Ralph Bunche and Argwings Kodhek roads. This is the start of the works until mid-2017.

So take out your phones, take the photos and indicate the road and landmark as you tweet the #WhatIsaRoad hashtag.