Malindi residents on Friday held demonstrations over the suspended sh.67m World Bank funded road project.
The residents, from Malindi and Sabaki sub-counties, held a peaceful demonstration against stakeholders who are opposing the sh.67 million project which led to the High Court suspending the tarmacking of Absa-Mtangani road.
Led by Majority leader i the County Assembly Adamson Mwathethe, Malindi town ward MCA Kadenge Dadu and Sabaki’s Edward Delle, the residents expressed concerns over the stakeholders wanting the road to be finished with cabro instead of bitumen which was being done.
The three MCAs said that those challenging the tarmacking of the road had their own interest at heart and not the people.
“Those opposed to the project had their own interests since some of them have cabro-manufacturing companies and they will not be able to supply cabro blocks if the road in build with bitumen,” said Malindi Town ward MCA Kadenge Dadu.
Speaking after demonstration, Sabaki MCA Edward Delle who is in the County Assembly Committee on Urban Development said there is evidence that public participation was done.
“What we want is a tarmack road it’s strange that some people calling themselves the business community are against it because they want cabro,” he said.
Their sentiments come just a few days after a section of the business community led by the Malindi Progressive Welfare Association and the Kilifi branch of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry obtained a court order stopping the project.
The applicants’ main contestation is that the road should be build using cabro blocks instead of bitumen as approved by the County Government of Kilifi after getting funding from the World Bank.
The 800-meter road from the Absa Bank to Paradise Hotel project is already in progress.
The MCAs fear that if this continues, World Bank might withdraw the funds as it was the one funding the project.
