The Kenya Roads Board (KRB) has updated the national road register following requests by stakeholders including county governments and road agencies.
The review, carried out by KRB on behalf of the Ministry of Roads and Transport and in consultation with road sector stakeholders is now awaiting approval and gazettement by the Inter-Governmental Relations Technical Committee.
The three-year consultative process is additionally meant to address comments received from stakeholders since the gazettement of the current road register in January 2016.
An initial stakeholder workshop was held in July 2022 where the stakeholders present were taken through the classification criteria and the updated register including how each agency
and county government was affected.
Following the gazettement of the road register in 2016, there were calls to the Cabinet Secretary, Roads and Infrastructure to review the classification system. Over 3,000 formal requests were received from stakeholders including Political Leaders, County Governments and Road Agencies. KRB was mandated to review the requests and submit a report with recommendations for the Cabinet Secretary’s consideration.
KRB reviewed the register from 2017 to 2021. The Purpose of this review was to assess the eligibility of each road/route/road link to fit in the proposed class. Among the significant highlights of the exercise were the identification and inclusion of missing links of national importance in the national trunk roads’ network and the revision of road lengths to reflect database lengths.
Speaking during the National validation workshop on the revised roads register, PS, State Department Ministry of Roads and Transport Eng. Joseph Mungai Mbugua said the gazetted Road Register of 2016 had its fair share of challenges evidenced by the numerous requests the Ministry and KRB had received over the years for review.
He added that a fragmented review of the Road Register is not the best scenario and there is a need for a comprehensive review of the Road Classification System including the Road Classification Manual that is currently in use.
“A number of questions we need to address in the review are the many road classes, the classification criteria, the road naming challenges, the numbering system and the frequency of reclassification. The desired approach should be a network approach that promotes connectivity and contiguity of the road network and in the most functional way, especially for the National Trunk Roads,” said Eng Mbugua.
He further urged all Road Agencies and County Governments to assist in the proper naming of their respective road network for ease of identification.
Currently, there are 161,451 km of classified roads comprising 39,995 km of national trunk roads and 121,456 km of county roads.
Following a review of the reclassification, the draft updated road register comprises 45,532 km of national trunk roads and 117,067 km of county roads.
KRB Director General Rashid Mohamed said the road register is the publishable document that follows road classification and in line with legal and constitutional provisions, KRB will continue to engage all relevant stakeholders and publicize any important information through such forums.
“Article 35 (3) requires the state to publish and publicise any important information affecting the nation. By segregating the road network into functional classes, a country develops a framework that is a basis for determining funding requirements for each road and the network as a whole, appropriate design standard for each road and allocation of management rights to road agencies.” Said Mohamed
The next process shall involve submission to the Inter-Governmental Relations Technical Committee for gazettement.
“Beyond this review, the Board in collaboration with all the key stakeholders looks to a more comprehensive review of the classification system to make it more robust and dynamic and update the road classification manual accordingly,” said KRB Director-General, Rashid Mohamed.
He additionally mentioned that the Board has commenced the development of the next phase of the Road Sector Investment Programme which seeks to provide a structured 5-year programme (2023-2027) for road development, rehabilitation and maintenance.
This cycle will be different from the past RSIPs as there will be one for the National Trunk Road Network and 47 County RSIPs specific to each county based on their network and projected budgets.
Further, Mohamed said that The Board has finalized and disseminated the Cost Estimation Manual 2022-2023 which is accessible from KRB’s website and they are in the final stages of undertaking a countrywide road inventory and condition survey.
Members of the public can access the updated road register through KRB website www.krb.go.ke/roadregister
Source: MY Gov