Kenya Eyes 482-kilometer Expressway to Connect Nairobi and Mombasa

The government of Kenya has commenced talks to construct a 482-kilometer expressway that will connect Nairobi and Mombasa cities.

This follows a pre-feasibility study carried out by the Korean Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation Africa (KIND) in collaboration with the Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHA) and the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works.

Citizen TV reported that the taskforce presented a pre-feasibility study report on the findings of the construction of Mombasa Expressway-Public Private Partnerships (PPP) project on Wednesday.

The study focused on demand projections, traffic projections, and affordability projections for the project that is expected to create more than 21,000 jobs and an additional 2,573 jobs per year during its operations and maintenance.

The road will start from Machakos Turn-Off to Mariakani in Mombasa and will see the existing highway become a four-lane dual carriageway linking the country’s two largest cities. It will feature interchanges and bypasses in the key towns along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

It will be the second major road project under the Public Private Partnership following the successful construction of the 27-kilometer Nairobi Expressway.

American engineering company Bechtel had been awarded a Sh300 billion contract to build the expressway in 2018 but it turned down Kenya’s proposal to recoup its investment via toll fees.

Instead, Bechtel wanted the Kenya government to secure funds for the construction of the highway, according to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

PBO said a study by Inter-America Development Bank showed a road is likely to be a viable candidate for construction through the toll model if it has a flow exceeding 5,000 vehicles per day unless the government offers a sizeable subsidy to the contractor.

“The contractor has indicated that the country will get better value for money if the road is constructed under an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) model rather than a toll model,” PBO said.

Bechtel noted that under the alternative public-private partnership (PPP) model, the project would cost five times more at $15 billion (Sh1.5 trillion) and take longer to complete.