The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) has been put on the spot after Elgeyo Marakwet residents decried a road design that had endangered the lives of motorists.
The Maron-Sambalat Road is described as a blackspot due to the dangerous curves on the steep slope in Kerio valley.
In a demand letter to the highway authority, the residents directed that action be taken to prevent deaths on the road.
“The said road has been described by a majority of the users as a ‘death trap’ due to its steepness. Arguably, the slope is way-above the required gradient for any standard road,” the residents stated in a letter through their lawyers.
The road has been a scene of grisly accidents in the past months.
In January 2020, two people died when a vehicle they were traveling in rolled several times while heading downhill to Sambalat.
One person lost their life after a school bus plunged several meters off a cliff on the Kerio Escapement in August 2019.
At the time, witnesses stated that the bus veered off the meandering Maron-Sambalat Road and rolled several times near Kapkirwok.
In their letter, the residents demanded KeNHA deploy a team of experts and other agencies to assess and ascertain the worthiness and safety of the road.
“If the team of experts finds that the road is not safe for use, they should reprimand any officer who failed to adhere to road design rules and regulations by cutting procedural corners or shortcuts thus endangering peoples’ lives,” they added.
The residents further called for the closure of the road, re-designing the road, and compensation of the victims’ families.
“if our demands are not met within 21 days, we shall have no option but to institute legal proceedings on behalf of the victims, the affected families, and users of the road.
“We shall ensure that the trial court visits the site to ascertain for themselves the atrocities meted upon the users of the said road,” they noted.