President Uhuru Kenyatta this morning signed into law, the Kenya Roads Board (Amendment) Bill 2019.
The signed Bill seeks to change the mandate and operations of the Kenya Roads Board and other agencies in the roads sector. For instance, the new law outlines how funds including exchequer resources will be utilized in the construction and maintenance of the county’s roads.
One of the reforms outlined in the new law is setting the limit of the money allocated to rural roads at 10 per cent of the funds appropriated by Parliament annually.
Monies allocated to Constituency Roads fund is limited at 25 per cent and will be administered by the Kenya Rural Roads Authority.
The National Highways Authority will receive 45 per cent of funds allocated through parliament on an annual basis while Kenya Urban Roads Authority will receive 15 per cent of the annual allocation.
The Kenya Wildlife Service will receive 1 per cent of the annual allocation for maintenance and construction of roads within national parks and game reserves.
Further, the new law caps administrative expenditure on rural roads in areas such as research, standardization, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation to 18 per cent of the total allocation.
The Act also empowers the Kenya Roads Board to borrow and to set aside funds for repayment of loans and other facilities taken for purposes of road maintenance, development and rehabilitation.
Present during the signing of the Bill were the Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, Attorney General Paul Kihara, Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi and Majority Leader in the National Assembly Aden Duale.
Others were Pokot South MP who is also the Chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Infrastructure Losiakou Pkosing, PS Infrastructure Paul Maringa and Clerk of the National Assembly Michael Sialai.
