CS Murkomen: Ksh.1B needed to repair railway damage caused by floods

The Ministry of Transport now says it will cost the country about Ksh.1 billion to repair the damage on the railway caused by the floods in April this year.

The flash floods which killed close to 70 people also destroyed the railway infrastructure and paralysed movement of goods between Mombasa and Malaba as well as neighbouring countries that depend on the railway.

More than a month has gone by since the fateful night in April that forever changed the landscape in the Kijabe catchment area and downstream in Mai Mahiu.

Over 70 lives were lost in that tragedy; but beyond the loss of lives, the floods also left their imprint, albeit negatively on one of the country’s key infrastructure installations.

The Metre Gauge Railway along the Kijabe - Longonot route bore the brunt of the force of nature unleashed through the floods.

The path carved by the waters as they moved downstream can be clearly seen weeks after that tragic occurrence.

The force of the floods and the landslides that came with them was so strong that in some places it cut off sections of the railway.

In other instances, the waters washed away land under the railway and left the line dangling in space. This tragedy, the ministry says was not entirely caused by acts of nature.

Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said: “The problem we are facing is because of environmental deflation and climate change, if you look at what is happening up there, there is massive destruction of trees and it has been going on for a while, when it rained it brought with it stumps of trees.”

The destruction on the line and the roads in the area has had a far reaching impact on the local community and beyond.

The railway line serves as a crucial link between the port of Mombasa and Malaba for cargo transport. It was also part of the passenger train network serving Kisumu.

These services now in abeyance, with cargo including fertilizer, maize, cement and other transit cargo remaining stranded in the port of Mombasa.

This, the ministry says, is causing significant delays in the supply chain, and affecting businesses that depend on these goods.

“There has been massive damage caused by the floods that will require extensive investment in terms of resources and machinery to be able to restore this railway line. The ministry is looking to the National Treasury for sufficient budgetary allocations to enable it to quickly carry out the needed repairs,” Murkomen added.

“We are talking about amounts that will run into billions of shillings. One bridge for example can cost upwards of a billion...we are talking about a number of similar bridges in this area alone.”

Repairs on sections of the damaged roads and railway lines in the area have already began, but the ministry says the hard work of restoring the broken links will take a whole lot longer, at a much higher cost.