By Jabali Digital
Plans are in top gear by the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to permanently remove the Coptic roundabout, along the busy Kisumu – Kakamega highway and replace it with a median separating the two carriageways.
The roundabout was destroyed by unknown individuals weeks ago, after the Naki Secondary School bus accident, which claimed the lives of 26 people on August 10, 2025.
Addressing the press on the sidelines of a sensitization forum of weighbridge staff on the anti-bribery Act, 2016 at a Kisumu hotel on Friday, KeNHA Nyanza regional Director Engineer Julius Mak'Oderoh said a contractor is expected on site in the coming days, geared toward permanently removing the roundabout.
“We expect to see in the next couple of weeks the contractor carrying out the permanent works which will basically entail introducing a separation between the two carriageways with clear demarcation,” said the regional boss.
“The preliminary estimates are now at around Sh20 million, and at least we have managed to organize some resources to meet that, so we expect that we should be able to proceed without any interruptions,” he stated when queried on the cost of the upcoming works.
He urged members of the public to cooperate with KeNHA to ensure the works start and end seamlessly.
“We've had instances where people have tried to go over the barriers that we have put there, and we're just urging members of the public to exercise caution and not to start trying to get over the median to the other side, but to use the necessary infrastructure and the signages that have been put there for their own safety,” added Mak’Oderoh.
He called on transporters to do away with the habit of overloading, adding that roads are enablers of their businesses.
“When you overload and destroy an enabler of your business, it's suicidal to your business and therefore it is of the best interest to every businessman and in this particular case the transporters, to adhere to the legal axle load limits so that they still continue being in business, he pleaded.
Resources for road repairs and constructions, the director noted, are dwindling by the day, against an aging infrastructure, calling for responsibility and accountability on Kenyan roads.
“For any serious businessman out there, I think it is in their best interest to ensure that they exercise prudence and diligence in the way they carry out their businesses and that includes obeying the axle load limits. It is only through that that we can guarantee that you'll have that enabler of your business for longer and you'll be able to break even. No one wins when you overload, everybody loses. Over to you transporters.”
The regional director was flanked by among others, Jared Makori, the deputy director in charge of Axel control at KeNHA, who said that their mandate is to make sure that all vehicles are weighed, and that they comply with the requisite load limits, with the sensitization forum according them an opportunity to spell out their mandate.
“We want to make sure that we remove the notion that weighbridges are an inconvenience in terms of doing business. We've been classified as one of the critical non-tariff barriers in terms of logistics. We want to remove that notion by making sure that operations are efficient and we're able to catch every offender,” he said.
Some of the challenges they face, he said, is vandalism of road signages by rogue scrap metal dealers, especially in towns such as Mombasa, Nakuru, Kitale and Kisumu.
He said they are working closely with police officers attached to the Axel Lord Enforcement and Highway Unit (ALEHU) department to arrest the suspects, for the law to take its course.