Africa-Press – Kenya. Residents of Katani area in Syokimau located on the outskirts of Nairobi have staged protests against Chinese contractor China Wuyi over what they termed as messy construction works.
A report by KBC on Wednesday, April 28, indicated that members of the Katani Cosmopolitan Residents Association claimed China Wuyi had subcontracted the project to an inept contractor.
They claimed that the project had forced them to park their personal cars far from the thriving estate because the road leading to their homes were impassable.
They further argued that the project was worse than before the sub-contractor, Bixxon Ltd, took the reigns.
The residents demanded the project to be undertaken by the Chinese company which had recorded better projects countrywide in the past.
“Let’s have China Wuyi do the work or the contract be cancelled immediately and awarded to some other contractor. In fact, having seen the good quality of roads done by China Wuyi, we had a lot of hopes that the same would be translated to our Katani road network.
“But we are seriously disappointed. Instead, China Wuyi subcontracted the works to a contractor whose capacity is questionable,” stated the association.
China Wuyi was expected to upgrade Mlolongo – Athi River- Joska Road to Bitumen standards.
The project was awarded to the Chinese company by Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA).
Bixon Ltd Contractor Geoffrey Ngure confirmed to the press that he had been awarded the project but declined to divulge any more details.
“It is not anywhere in the record that I am a contractor there. As a contractor, we are not allowed to talk to the media at all.
“The person who you are supposed to talk to is either the client or contractor, the client is KURA and the contractor is China Wuyi (K) Company Ltd. I am sorry, I can’t talk further,” he explaine.
This comes barely a week after Eldoret residents stormed a road construction site and chased away workers.
The angry residents held protests on Wednesday, April 21, after the contractor delayed settling a Ksh4 million land compensation claim.
The contractor and his team are in the process of constructing the Eldoret Bypass valued at Ksh 5 billion to bitumen standards.
