Nandi County is situated in the fertile western highlands of Kenya and has a land area of 22884.4 Kms square. It is mostly hilly, has deep loam soils and high annual rainfall of between 1500mm and 2500mm , a combination of factors that makes routine road maintenance critical. Nandi County has an estimated population of over 900,000 (2016), 90% of which is rural. With a high population density of 400 persons per square km the county requires a good transport network to enable residents to carry out their economic activities. The main economic activities are agriculture, livestock, dairy, transport and commerce underlining the need for a good transport network.
The County Government of Nandi recognizes the vital role that a good transport network will play in promoting economic growth and has since 2013 continued to place great emphasis on the development of the sector. This position is supported by popular public view that consistently places roads (transport network) among the top two agenda in all public participation forums.
The county Government of Nandi has devoted substantial resources to transport and infrastructure and in return has realized a great improvement in the transport infrastructure network, chiefly roads.
In 2013/2014 financial year the County devoted Kshs 400m to the development and improvement of transport infrastructure. This amount was raised in financial year 2013/2014 to Kshs 550M and further to Kshs 600M in the 2015/2016. The proposed transport infrastructure budget for 2016/2017 is Ksh 800M.
In 2013/2014 the County Government of Nandi maintained and improved 450km of earth road . This was raised to over 600KM in 2014/2015 , while ongoing programs for 2015/2016 the County Government is on course to complete maintenance and improvement of over 800Km of earth road.
Furthermore, the County government of Nandi has completed 5Km of urban tarmac roads in Kapsabet and Nandi Hills towns, a bus-park in Lessos urban center and 5 reinforced concrete bridges as well as 25 vented drift culvert crossings across the County. The County has also installed a total of 40 street and public area lighting in major urban centers.
In February 2016 the County Government of Nandi acquired 4 graders, 2excavators , 2 rollers and 4, 25ton tipper lorries construction equipment at a cost of Kshs 200M . This is with the aim of enabling County Government to carry out more road maintenance and improvement works more cheaply and to allow quick response to emergency works. The machines are already operational and over 200km of road has been graded while gravelling will soon follow.
The future of this sector is bright in Nandi County and we can confidently say devolution is just what was needed for local transport infrastructure (roads). The total length of newly opened roads currently stands at over 200Km.