MPs give Siaya housing and market contractors six to eight months to finish
Written on
The National Assembly's housing committee has put contractors on Siaya's affordable housing project and an Economic Stimulus Programme market on notice, saying work is too slow and one site has been abandoned.
The National Assembly Committee on Housing, Urban Planning and Public Works has warned contractors handling infrastructure projects in Siaya County over what it called an unacceptably slow pace of execution.
Speaking in Siaya town on Friday, 23 October, after inspecting the ongoing affordable housing project and an Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) market site, committee vice chair and Buuri MP Mugambi Rindikiri said the contractor on the market project had abandoned the site without explanation despite having been paid. "We are not happy about the speed this project is ongoing," he said. "The project is ongoing, but at a very slow pace. We have picked issues with the contractors."
The committee urged the contractors to expedite work so that the projects are completed within the next six to eight months, saying the executive position backed by President William Ruto is that all public projects must be completed on schedule.
Rindikiri said legislators are directly answerable to the people of Kenya who fund the works. "We are responsible to the people of Kenya, not any individual. This is Kenyan people's money which you have taken. You are enjoying it. This is the sweat of taxpayers' money," he said.
The inspection team is compiling its findings to table a formal report before the National Assembly on returning to Nairobi, and has warned that strict administrative and legal action will be pursued against contractors who fail to cooperate or adhere to their contractual work plans and payment schedules.
The inspection comes as the government continues to promote its Affordable Housing Programme as a way of addressing the country's housing needs and supporting orderly urban development. Ruto said at a media engagement in Kisumu on 14 September that the programme could reduce pressure on farmland by providing housing in organised urban developments. "Many people who would otherwise be living in towns have gone to subdivide agricultural land into small pieces," he said.