Government lights Up Towns And Market Centres In Migori County

Image of a light up Nairobi City

The National Government has in the last three years spent over Sh150 million to light up towns and markets within Migori County.

Through an ambitious program mooted in 2016, the region has witnessed LED-lights being installed along strategic streets and spots within the local towns and rural markets.

In a report tabled before the local project monitoring and verifying committee Friday morning, Kenya Power acting Business Manager Mr Moses Rotich said that a total of 1,678 LED-lights had been installed at various towns and rural markets at a cost of Sh151, 195, 831.22 within a period of three years.

At the same time, the program that has been embraced by the local population as key to fighting insecurity has seen Rongo University benefit from 63 lights spread across its compound.

Rotich also reported that a total of 618 local schools had by mid-October this year been connected to the national grid and two to a solar power supply under the government’s Last-mile Power Connectivity program.

However, he told the committee chaired by the County Commissioner Joseph Rotich that some of the schools owed the company a total of Sh3.7 million pending bills.

“Nyabirongo boarding primary school alone in Kuria West owes us Sh160, 456.27 making this company operate in the red with regard to the revenue raised within a financial year,” he informed the forum also attended by the President’s Delivery Unit Director Mr Melchizedek Onguso.

During the meeting, members also expressed concern that the rehabilitation of the Kisii-Isebania road was moving at a slow pace.

The over Sh8 billion project which commenced on May 9th 2017 with an end date of May 8, 2020, has only seen 30.6 per cent of the work done.

Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) Nyanza regional Director Eng. Phelix Osingo confirmed that the 36-months project was seriously behind schedule but they were pushing the contractor, M/s China Henan International Cooperation Group, to move fast and complete the work within the stipulated time.

Eng. Osingo also asked Eng. Martin Maina who was representing the project supervising firm –Egis International and Egis Kenya, to ensure the contractor managed the increased problem of dust emission on spots where works were going on.

There have been concerns that the contractor has been ignoring watering the stretch of the road under construction thereby putting the lives of the highway users into a serious risk of contracting the disease as a result of the heavy dust on the route.

On several occasions, irate members of the public have blocked the route with boulders to force the contractor to manage dust by watering the stretch of the highway they were working on to conserve the environment.

The Director also announced that the government in collaboration with the World Bank had set aside over Sh65 billion to compensate people whose land and property will be affected along the highway.

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