By ALI ABDI
Isiolo County: Officials of a construction firm named ‘Cowboy Contractors’ were accosted by angry Isiolo residents when senior Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra) and Ministry of Roads and Infrastructure officers visited the site of the proposed construction of Gotu Bridge.
The Kerra officials from Nairobi and Isiolo and their ministry colleagues were at Gotu, along the Ewaso Ng’iro River on a day-long site tour on Thursday with local and international firms who had placed a bid for the construction of the Sh400 million bridge that will link the vast and remote Merti District with the County headquarters in Isiolo town.
Residents led by officials of Merti Integrated Development Programme (Mid-P) and Resource Advocacy Programme (RAP) told the government officials that a firm that was allocated Sh85 million by Isiolo North CDF in 2012 to put up the bridge should be blacklisted instead of being allowed to bid for a tender of the same project.
Abdullahi Shande of Mid-P and Daud Tari of RAP pointed to three concrete pillars erected in the middle of the river by the Nanyuki-based firm that was paid the entire amount and issued with certificate of completion by the ministry.
The same project had consumed Sh40 million given by the National Government in 2011 following former President Kibaki’s visit to Merti.
"We have the crew from the firm Cowboy Contractors here who were paid Sh85 million after erecting the three pillars. They should be blacklisted and prosecuted instead of being allowed to bid for the same project," said Shande.
The dumbfounded officials of the firm were rescued by village elders from the wrath of the angry youth, some of who accused them of failing to pay them for casual work done.
The residents called on Kerra and the Ministry to give the tender to a Chinese firm saying they have no confidence in local and national construction companies.
An engineer from Kerra headquarters who only gave his name as Nderitu told the residents they could not comment on the abandoned work funded by another entity.
"Let me not comment on what had happened but be assured that this is a National Government project and work will be done according to required standards," said the Kerra official.
He said the bridge will be constructed at a new site adding that it will have a 500-metre road approach on either side of the river.
A source at Isiolo Kerra office said the name of the contractor from Nanyuki who had expressed interest in undertaking the new project had been crossed from the list of interested bidders.
The NGO officials thanked President Uhuru’s Jubilee administration for funding the project and Isiolo County Women Representative, Tiyyah Galgalo for her lobbying work.
Gotu makeshift bridge, set up by the British colonial government in 1951, was designed to allow passage during the dry season when the river is nearly empty. It has a thin concrete surface on top of the rocky bed and is not visible when the volume of water rises above a metre.
The local pastoralists and civil servants working there dread the ‘bridge’ especially during rainy season. All crashes occur during the two rainy seasons.
According to Mid-P, in the last 10 years there have been 100 deaths resulting from incidents in which vehicles have been swept into the raging crocodile-infested river. Transporters of livestock have also suffered losses after their trucks plunged into the river, killing the cattle they were carrying.
In 2011, 11 people died at the site after a truck plunged into the river. The bodies and the truck have not been recovered to date.
