ALL THREE PRESIDENTIAL candidates say that infrastructure, especially roads, will be a priority if they are elected. I agree because most of our major roads are in a pathetic state.

This country will not experience sustainable growth with the type of roads we have. Right now, those to western Kenya connecting to the country''s key Comesa export markets in Uganda, DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi are in a deplorable state.

 
Our transporters are incurring huge losses in both the turn-around time to these markets and in soaring maintenance costs.

Today, it is cheaper to fly to Kisumu, Eldoret, Kakamega, Kericho and Kisii, than to drive a personal car through that treacherous patch between Maai Mahiu and Narok or the gully-riddled road between Timboroa and Eldoret.

Capitalism cannot function efficiently in an economy with bad roads, a congested port, expensive electricity and an inefficient railway system.

To the credit of President Kibaki''s administration, a great deal of progress has been achieved in reconstructing the part between Gilgil and Nakuru. But work on the Narok side is proceeding at snail''s speed.

The irony is that as we concentrate in rebuilding these roads, the backlog of maintaining other roads is piling up. We are clearly caught up in a vicious circle.

Do the presidential candidates appreciate the complexity of this problem? Where are the radical ideas to tackle this situation?

Regrettably, the presidential campaign is not bringing out specific and fresh ideas on how to go around the problem.

Yet we are today in a situation where even Comesa countries with much smaller economies in the region like Zambia and Malawi have better roads than us.

The biggest contribution the Kibaki administration has made in the last four years in the roads sector was to increase budgetary allocation for road construction and maintenance.

Most spectacular were the increases in budgetary allocations that were effected between financial year 2005/2006 and financial year 2006/2007, when the gross development budget for roads increased from Sh17.7 billion to Sh32.7 billion - an increase of 85 per cent within one fiscal year.

But experience has since taught us that you do not get better roads by merely throwing money at the problem.

The Government has experienced major problems spending the billions allocated for road construction and management.

A recent review by the World Bank found that the absorption of money for roads remains dismally low, with the problem of under-spending afflicting even 100 per cent Government-funded projects.

IF THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES are truly serious about roads, then they should be telling us the radical and specific steps they intend to put in place to scale up the utilisation of roads funds.

Without solving this basic problem, whoever comes to power in January will not make any major dent on the problem of dilapidated roads.

Who, for instance, is prepared to declare a temporary suspension of public procurement and project preparation procedures to allow faster completion of roads projects?

It may require us to bring in reputable road-builders from foreign countries and to engage them in a crash programme to renovate some of our key roads. Indeed, part of the problem is that the local capacity for road construction in the private sector has dwindled over the years.

If projects are not moving fast enough because we do not have enough capacity at the ministry to manage contracts, are we prepared import road engineers, including Kenyans in the diaspora, and local engineers in the private sector on a crash programme to do the job?

Another problem that has been identified is delay in disbursement of donor funding that afflicts co-financed projects, and which occur when the creditors take too long to issue the so-called "letters of no objection".

We have reached a point when we must now rethink - a complete paradigm shift of sorts - on the whole question of donor conditionalities especially when they prove to be as obstructive and meddlesome as to impede completion of critical infrastructure projects.

Why don''t we, for instance, decide that all key roads be built with funds raised from the local capital markets?

If I were President, I would merge the ministries of Roads and Public Works with Transport. To do so will have the benefit of reducing the number of ministries and increasing efficiency.

Where is the wisdom of giving the responsibility of building and maintaining a road to Public Works when it has no say on the number of overloaded trucks that will be plying that road?
 
With an inefficient rail network and a congested port, you must expect overloaded trucks on your roads. Yet people who build the roads cannot make decisions on what happens to the railways networks and ports.

Today, the cost of transporting export goods to Mombasa from Nairobi is about 30 per cent of the total cost of transporting the goods to Europe.

If we don''t build a new railway line, rebuild our roads, improve our ports and make electricity and telecommunications cheaper, this economy will not experience sustainable growth.