This archive report was first published on 5 August 2020.
Published on August 5, 2020, in The Standard, a scandal has erupted in Narok County's Emurua Dikir Constituency over the construction of a Sh30 million culvert instead of a bridge.
Residents of Chebara village claim that the bridge, which was supposed to connect Ololmasani and Mogondo wards across River Mogor, was promised by their MP Johana Ng'eno but was instead replaced with a culvert that has already been washed away by recent rains.
According to Betty Rono, a resident, the lack of a bridge puts the lives of sick people and pregnant women at risk as they cannot access health facilities on the other side of the river.
Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) resident engineer Joshua Musindayi denied claims that the bridge was a Constituency Development Fund project, stating that the cost of the 'box culvert' was actually Sh17 million and not Sh30 million as alleged.
He further clarified that the MP had no involvement in the project, which was awarded in Nairobi last year, and that the contractor was 90 per cent done despite being slowed down by heavy rains and Covid-19.
The residents have called on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the office of the Auditor General to investigate the use of the local Constituency Development Fund, alleging that the funds might have been embezzled.
