A confrontation erupted yesterday between a team of Principal Secretaries inspecting State-funded projects and Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) engineers over delays in starting the construction of the Kwale-Kinango road project.

Led by Public Works PS Maj-Gen (rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa, who led his colleagues in assessing and monitoring projects in Kwale, they said the contractor from China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation has delayed the work for over 10 months now.

“KeNHA issued the contract to the Chinese firm in May last year. They have both failed. We were expecting work to be going on unfortunately nothing is being done,” the PS said.

Speaking yesterday, Kihalangwa, said the government had already released Sh3.7 to tarmac the 29km Kwale-Kinango road project, which was expected to be complete by 2024.

He, however, urged KeNHA Coast region Director Eric Wambua and the contractor to issue a firm timeline and commitment on how they will work on the project and compensate on the delayed time.

“KeNHA Coast region you have completely failed us. How come the work has not started since last year March?” Kihalangwa asked.

His sentiments were echoed by Industrialisation PS Kirimi Kaberia, who termed KeNHA and the contractor as big jokers.

“To me you are just jokers because you have  not even put up the contractor’s office for the project at the site.

This means you are not on the ground. You just heard about our visit  and you rushed here today,” Kiberia said.

He gave the contractor a three-week ultimatum to start work immediately. On his part, the Chinese contractor said  he had encountered challenges of clearing imported equipment at the port and hitches with Kenya Forest officers.

, as 11 kms of the road will pass through the Kwale Forest.