Kenema residents cry over deplorable roads
Residents of Kenema City have raised grave concern over the deplorable road network in the city and its environs. (Photo: Aziz Abdul Kamara, Director-General, Sierra Leone Roads Authority(SLRA) Abdulai Mento Kamara)
They raised the concern during a meeting organized by one of the nation’s local Non-Governmental Organizations, Road for Development – Sierra Leone (R4D) in collaboration with Civil Society Organizations in the country.
Representatives from other organizations in that part of the country were on that day assembled in the conference room of the Children’s Welfare Society of Sierra Leone, where the organizers encouraged them to present their case for discussion and agreement on the way forward that would help in solving the problem of bad roads and other related issues in the city.
Deputy Town Chief of Kenema, Francis Musa Kallon, noted that the roads in the city were in such a bad shape due to the long neglect by the authorities of the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) and that such neglect had caused set back in the people’s daily activities.
He further said that trading was central to the economic life of the people meaning that good roads, which facilitate trading, were a crucial to the economic development of the area.
He called on the Senior SLRA officials to come to the aid of Kenema residents to bring solution to the road conditions in, not only the city but the entire district, in line with His Excellency’s ‘Agenda for Prosperity’.
Chief Kallon revealed they had in the past used youth groups to cover potholes but that the materials used in the process were not good for sustainable work. As the SLRA has the mandate for road construction and maintenance in the entire country, Chief Kallon was on bended knees appealing to the authorities of the SLRA to salvage their situation.
The Director, Health for All Coalition, Charles Mambu, described Kenema as becoming a laughing stock among other cities in other regions due to the deplorable condition of the roads in the city, especially that leading to the City Council office which is the administrative headquarters of the city.
He maintained that their aim as Civil Society activists is to bring to the attention of the government the cry of the people of that part of the country, noting that the Government of His Excellency, President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, has been doing well in improving the road network in many parts of the country and that Kenema should not be an exception.
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2015, https:. All rights reserved.
