Nyatike residents plant bananas to protest poor state of road

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A section of Nyatike residents have planted banana stumps along the Sori-Nyakweri road in Migori to protest the poor state.

The 20km road is among the infrastructure President William Ruto promised to deliver when he visited the region about three months ago.

At the time, Ruto said works would commence within a month. Today, however, nothing is yet to happen as residents grapple with the damaged road that has affected transport forcing them to use longer routes.

Residents lamented that it takes them to travel on the damaged road.

“This road is in a pathetic state. We find it difficult to access nearby health facilities because of the bad roads we have here,” Mary Oyier said.

The residents said they are tired of wading through water every time it rains. 

They claimed that it takes them approximately two hours to reach their destination when they use the road, a distance that ought to take 30 minutes.

“We are really suffering. This is a national government road that takes us two hours to reach our destination,” Peter Onyango, another resident lamented.

Onyango said motorists have hiked fares and they have been forced to dig deep into their pockets to travel even for short distances.

The situation gets worse during the rainy season when the floods render the road impassible.

The residents accused leaders of turning the road into a campaign tool.

“Women feel pain when in labour. There is no vehicle to transport you to the hospital, we are forced to use the bad roads while on boda-boda,” Molly Achieng said.

Dancun Otieno, asked the area MP to act fast and have the road constructed.

Otieno said President Ruto had promised that the construction of Sori-Nyakweri Road would commence in a month’s time when he visited the region.

“The government needs to tell us if we are really part of Kenya. We need better roads,” Otieno said.

Nyatike MP Tom Odege appealed for calm saying the government was in the process of ensuring construction of the the road.

The legislator told residents to desist from politicizing the said road.

“The finance minister said he is organizing how to pay the contractors so that he can resume work,” Odege said.

He said the contractor of that road left because of non-payment.