Community Roads Empowerment (CORE), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that has been rehabilitating rural access roads within Meru Municipality, has officially handed over the rehabilitated roads to the County Government of Meru and Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) for continuous rehabilitation and project sustainability. The three-year-project that began in 2022 was sponsored by the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) through the World Bank.Speaking during the handover ceremony, CORE project Manager Yuka Iwamura said the 27 kilometres of rehabilitated roads connecting the 23 kilometres of existing Eastern and Western bypasses were spread within the underserved areas of Gitimbine, Mjini and Majengo. "Through the rehabilitation of these roads, we have ensured that people living in underserved areas are able to access roads leading to important amenities like schools, hospitals and markets among other areas of interest," said Iwamura. She said they have also revitalized the community by teaching them how to make their roads where a total of 1,250 beneficiaries organised in 50 groups each comprising 25 people have been trained. Ms Iwamura further added that the on-the-job training has been beneficial to community members since they were able to learn how camber is made, dig drainage, stone pitching, among other skills that they will be using in future to rehabilitate their roads "We have also boosted the beneficiaries' social and economic status by encouraging and supporting them to form Small Micro-Enterprises (SMEs), register with bodies like, National Construction Authority (NCA), and Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) so they can start tendering for road construction utilizing skills they learnt," said Iwamura. Representing the Governor during the ceremony, County Secretary and Head of Public Servicers Kiambi Atheru appreciated good work done by CORE as well as other stakeholders to ensure rural communities could easily access Meru town for various essential services. He said in the next budgeting phase, the county government of Meru consider use of the technology in rehabilitation of roads by setting aside money that will be used to award contracts to the SMEs formed by the beneficiaries. "We have witnessed high technology and efficiency in construction of roads and that is why we want to thank the CORE fraternity for their good work," said Dr Atheru. He added: "The County government of Meru remains committed to fostering inclusive development through strategic partnerships and transformative projects that uplift communities and create sustainable livelihoods." Lands, Physical Planning, Roads and Public Works Executive Monica Kathono said the three years of working together with CORE has been beneficial and transformational to the beneficiaries who might have lost hope in their future. "We have witnessed crimes going down in areas where youth have been engaged in road rehabilitation and we look forward to having more of such projects from CORE to realise transformation and economic empowerment of our people," said Ms Kathono.
A two-week training course for 100 beneficiaries of CORE by Kenya Institute of Highway and Building Technology (KIHBT) is set to take place at Meru National polytechnic next month in order to enhance their capacity in the construction sector.
By Dickson Mwiti
