President William Ruto on Wednesday expressed satisfaction with the pace of construction of the 750km Isiolo-Wajir-Mandera road.
He made the remarks when he and Deputy President Kithure Kindiki inspected construction works along the Kula Mawe-Modogashe section of the road.
His tour comes barely a day after former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua claimed that construction works on several sections of the 750km Isiolo-Mandera highway have stalled for the past three months.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, Gachagua alleged that work had slowed down due to financial challenges.
“Majority of the sections have stalled for the last three months, and workers have never been paid their money to be able to continue with the construction,” Gachagua claimed.
Standing at 40 per cent completion, the President noted that the Sh100 billion road project is progressing well, putting to shame critics and naysayers who doubted it would ever see the light of day.
“When I announced the construction of this road in February 2025, it looked like a story; it didn’t look real. Some even said it was a lie, and that it was not possible. But here we are today,” the President said.
Also known as the Horn of Africa Gateway Development Project, the highway is the single longest road project in the country since independence.
President Ruto said the project is one of the many interventions the government is making to correct historical injustices long suffered by the people of northern Kenya.
“I am very happy that we are finally opening up Kenya and connecting this nation. If any part of Kenya is left behind, we are lesser, we are poorer,” he said.
“By connecting every part of the country, we are harnessing the full potential of the nation,” he said.
President Ruto said Kenya’s future lies in tapping the vast potential of the Northern Frontier, especially towards achieving national food security.
Ruto also noted that the 420km Isiolo-Garissa-Lamu road, which is being built at a cost of KSh27 billion, is well on course.
He assured residents of the region that the two key road projects will not be delayed or derailed by sideshows or political critics.
President Ruto elaborated that the two transport corridors are part of the 6,000km of roads currently under construction across the country.
“We have re-mobilised contractors who had been demobilised by debt and pending bills in 2021 and 2022, and we hope to complete all stalled roads by next year,” he said.
In the next phase, the President said the government has mapped out 28,000km of roads to be tarmacked, 1,000km of which will be in northern Kenya.
In December last year, President William Ruto revealed that two sections of the highway—the 67km Modogashe-Samatar stretch and the 75km Rhamu-Mandera section—had initially been under the annuity financing programme.
He said the contracts under the annuity arrangement had been terminated by mutual agreement with the contractors, paving the way for new financing talks with the World Bank.
“The Cabinet is going to approve so that shortly we do the procurement so that by February those sections will be part of the road,” Ruto said at the time.
by STEPHEN ASTARIKO
