Minister Franklin Bett has directed roads authorities to take control of road reserves and use them to generate revenue for future maintenance of roads.

The minister decried the presence of cartels who have infiltrated the roads sector and are reaping from advertising revenues at the expense of the ministry which has claimed ownership of all road reserves.

He directed three main road authorities including Kenya Rural Roads Authority, the Kenya Urban Roads Authority and the Highway Authority to liase with the Ministry of Lands and ensure revenue collected from billboards is used for maintenance.

Local authorities have been collecting revenue from advertisers in recent years. Bett made the remarks while inaugurating the new board of the Kenya Roads Board.

He said his ministry has written to the Treasury proposing an increase in fuel levy to raise money for roads maintenance. He said out of the 160,000 kilometers of road network, only 14,000 were butemised.

"We have to control the weight and you will save the roads. Transporters have to take care of roads for their own future," said Bett Members of the new KRB board include chairman Joel Wanyoike, Joel Yego, Monika Solanki, Osman Ibrahim, Rita Kavashe, ConsalataYambo and Michael Karanja.

The Kenya Assocation of Transporters did not provide a candidate on the board as was expected. The board CEO Francis Nyangaga and PS Michael Kamau attended yesterday's inauguration.