More than 7, 000 residents of Masheta village in Chonyi Sub County, Kilifi County have a reason to smile after a bridge that collapsed four years ago has been reconstructed at a cost of Ksh83 million.

According to Raphael Mwangala, a resident, the collapsed bridge had caused untold suffering to residents who were forced to take longer routes to their destinations.

“The bridge that was here was very narrow and dangerous and when it collapsed, we suffered since we had no other alternative and it was also used as a dumpsite for bodies of people killed elsewhere,” he said.

The new 50 meter bridge is a two way carriage, fitted with street lights and it is one of its kind implemented by the county government of Kilifi.

Kilifi South MP Ken Chonya said that when the bridge collapsed four years ago, he approached then Governor Amason Kingi who turned him down forcing him to seek help from the national government but still failed.

“When the bridge collapsed, I took pictures and took them to then Governor Kingi but he never responded and when the general election was nearing in 2017, I approached Governor Gideon Mung’aro who was then an aspirant with ODM and he told me that the bridge will be built once he is elected,” he said.

In addition, Kilifi Women representative Getrude Mbeyu said that women, children and people living with disability have gotten reprieve since they were the most affected when seeking social and government services on either side of the river.

“The bridge that had been declared not possible to construct by government engineers has been constructed by Chinese contractors in a record time of six months which is historic. This is now Masheta express,” she said.

Governor Mung’aro on his part said that local contractors and government engineers were demanding Ksh. 175 million to construct a one-way bridge but he insisted on having a two-way modern bridge and that is when he approached Chinese contractors who promised to do the work for half the price and within a short period of time.

“I visited this place with Hon Chonga when the bridge had collapsed and immediately after being sworn in, I tried to find local contractors who claimed that it was impossible to construct the bridge due to the depth of the river and even national government engineers quoted Ksh. 175 million for a one-way bridge which I turned down and that is when I was introduced to Chinese investors who said that they could do it with Sh. 83 million and in four months,” he said.

He added that the construction took an extra two months due to delay in releasing county funds from the exchequer.

Written by Alphonce Gari, TV47 Correspondent