By MKT Correspondent and Kenya News Agency
The government has put a contractor on notice for the slow progress in the construction of a KSh324 million modern market in Othaya constituency, Nyeri County.
The multimillion project being funded by the State Department for Housing and Urban Development started on May 6, 2025 and is set for completion on May 8, 2026.
Once complete, the five-storeyed facility is expected to accommodate more than 700 traders and will incorporate guard rooms, modern washrooms and solid waste management facilities.
During a recent site visit last week Central Regional Commissioner Joshua Nkanatha said the project was progressing at a slower pace than expected and urged the contractor to speed up the work and focus on handing over the project as agreed.
Nkanatha declared it was unacceptable for the project to be at 15 per cent completion yet the State had already cleared all the outstanding payments to the contractor.
The Regional Commissioner’s team started tour of several ptojects in the region in Othaya where at the construction site of a five-storeyed market which is supposed to cater for over 700 traders, they found that the contractor was on site but realized that he is having very few workers.
The team was set up by the move with the RC saying it was in bad taste since the government had recently released KSh60 billion and paid all pending bills owed to contractors, and so the government does not owe them anything.
Nkanatha was accompanied by other members of the Central Regional Implementation Committee (RICMC).
Consequently, the Commissioner directed the contractor to increase the number of casual labourers at the site to speed up the progress of the project which he noted was already behind schedule.
The modern market is one of the many others, totalling more than KSh500 million that the area MP Wambugu Wainaina alias Kìrìma has lobbied from President William Ruto’s administration.
He underscored that apart from implementing development projects for Kenyans in the rural areas, one main objective of the government was open up those areas and create ample employment opportunities for the youth.
“These projects are expected to create employment for the youths and when we found a project like that one having 11 workers we started getting worried whether they are really helping us to attain the goals set by the government. So we have said we want to go and have a meeting with the contractor and raise our concerns that we are not going to entertain that. We want to see the work progressing faster,” he told KNA.
The team also visited the Ichamara-Kimathi-Rutune Road which is being upgraded to bitumen standards at a cost of Sh1.2 billion.
The road which will link Nyeri and Kirinyaga County is expected to ease mobility for both traffic and people in an area that had never seen tarmac since Kenya gained independence.
Nkanatha lauded the contractor for the commendable progress and said once the 28-kilometer stretch is complete it will transform the area and create good business opportunities.
“We are happy with the pace at which the contractor has mobilized resources. We have even talked to the community representative like the local administrator. The people around here are very thankful to the Government that for the first time this area is being opened up to enable local people do business and also interact freely with the rest of the region. There are people who are seeing tarmac for the first time in this region,” he added.
James Nguyo, the assistant Regional Site Engineer, said they plan to hand it over to the government in July next year.
He also exuded confidence that the progress of the works will not be compromised as the deadline approaches.
“Basically, we are at 35 per cent progress against 96 per cent time lapse. But the construction has been moving very well with very few challenges. In total we have over 100 personnel per day and many times they are engaged on a need basis.But we might get to 200 depending on the work at hand. In terms of progress and preparedness the contractor is on course and we are hoping that in the coming year we should be thinking of this work being complete,” he stated.
