By Lynet Igadwah
Access to reliable transport in more than a third of counties in Kenya is below the national average, posing challenges to economic growth in the country.
The road inventory and condition report by the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) shows 38 percent of counties have a Rural Access Index (RAI) of below 70 percent which is the country’s average.
Northern and Northern Eastern counties such as Tana River, Wajir, Turkana and Lamu which are typically sparsely populated, have access indices ranging between 11 and 30 percent.
This is in comparison to agricultural counties such as Nyandarua, Kisii, Kakamega and Uasin Gishu which have the highest access indices ranging between 72 percent and 100 percent.
RAI is the global indicator for measuring people’s access to reliable transportation in rural areas which has a direct link to their reach to opportunities.
The KRB proposes that absolute numbers be used in estimating the RAI to mitigate against over- and underestimation of individual county access indices due to projected population numbers.
“It is proposed that a follow-up index estimates are calculated after the national census based on absolute numbers,” said KRB in the 2018 State of the Roads report.
The survey conducted between August 2016 and November 2018 shows that the general network condition of Kenyan roads has improved significantly. The proportion of roads in good condition increased to 56 percent in 2018 from 44 percent in 2009.
Kenya’s road extent network increased from 160,886Km in 2009 to approximately 246,757 Km, an improvement linked to better funding and administration of the road network maintenance.
