Road goes missing in Meru district

Freetown · 2008-09-05T11:18:49+00:00

The road disappeared soon after it was (reportedly) constructed at the cost of Tsh. 100 million. It is one loss that the residents of Maji-ya-chai ward are not about to take lightly. According to the residents, the important infrastructure did go missing after the construction and not before, thus they want their road (or money) back. It used to be an ordinary beaten track but was very much passable even with my saloon car, but as soon as it was constructed as local leaders claimed, the stretch where the road once lied became corrugated bunkers, someone must have taken away the entire surface, said a local resident who is now forced to leave his car at Maji-ya-chai and trek on foot to where his home is located at Ngurdoto village. Cruising with difficulty along the badly corrugated track, this paper witnessed mounds of soil deposited on parts of the road with most of them being eroded due to prolonged periods of stay under hostile weather conditions. You need a high performing four-wheel drive vehicle to master this road, said Ainea Verali, who drives old beaten-up 1967 Toyota Stout 2000. He said it was the road, not the years that have been wearing his pickup truck down. Apparently the Stout is the only vehicle which occasionally drives up the track from Maji-ya-chai to Ngurdoto and the occasion is usually once a week. Mostly on market days when people beg me to ferry them at Tsh. 1000 per head, the truck can carry 20 people at a time but after a return journey I usually have to take it for repairs, he explained. Along the road students could be seen dragging their tired feet from school, we usually spend three hours to get to school every morning but he journey gets longer when returning in the afternoon due to hunger and exhaustion, they said. We tried to find out more from the Ward representative, but his office was padlocked. His response when we finally got him by his phone was far from being polite; I am not quite sure if the matter regarding the road is any of your business, he said before hanging up. The Meru District Commissioner Elias Wawa Lali promised to make a follow up on the road issue. Maybe the money for its construction is yet to be sent down, but if the funds were delivered and no road was made, then it is worthy checking, he stated over the phone. While admitting the government could have allocated the money for the road construction, DC Lali advised that we also check with the district engineer if indeed the funds were remitted and whether the road was constructed as claimed. Until going to press however efforts to contact the Meru District engineer were unsuccessful

Thread starter Freetown
Start date Sep 5, 2008

Freetown

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Road goes missing in Meru district

Freetown

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