Contractor given ultimatum to complete high court in Maralal town

A company that was contracted by national government to construct high court at Maralal town in Samburu County has been directed to complete the project within a year failure to which the contract would be terminated and given to someone else.

Chief Justice David Maraga said Debroso, a construction company that was contracted by government to construct the court would be closely supervised by officers from judiciary and local leaders to ensure that construction work is going on and that the building is completed within the required work time.

“The contractor here is not moving at a speed that we want, my people told me that he had capacity challenges and I had to come myself, we have been forced to scale down the project because given the pace at which is moving we are not going to able to complete within the required time which is by end of this year,”

“People from my office and leaders would closely supervise the project and would pass information to us when there is nothing going on and then we will know what to do , if we are forced to terminate the contractor and give it to somebody else who can finish the work we will do so,” he said.

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The chief Justice was accompanied by Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda and Woman Representative Maison Leshoomo.

Ms Leshoomo said residents in the region have been incurring expenses in search of high court services which could not have been the case this year could the contractor have implemented the project within the required time.

“Our people are suffering as they seek high court services from Nyeri, Nanyuki, Nyahurur, Isiolo and Nakuru because it is very costly, we were hoping that construction of this court within the required time would reduce the cost of seeking services,” Mrs Leshoomo said.

On her part Lesuuda said the leaders have agreed to cooperate with the judiciary officers to ensure that the construction of the court is completed and launched soon for the benefit of wananch.

“As residents we know importance of this court because services will come closer to the people, therefore we have agreed to cooperate with judiciary officers to ensure that the construction of the court is completed within a year so that people can enjoy services,” Lesuuda said.

The leaders supported the chief justice saying delayed construction of the high court has affected service delivery to residents.

Debroso construction commenced its work from April 2017 and the construction work was expected to have been complete by October 2018.