President Ruto delay Uhuru’s Sh160billion Mau Summit Highway project
President William Ruto has imposed a temporary halt on the construction of the Sh160billion 233-kilometre Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Toll Road set to be constructed by a consortium of three French firms and to be funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank.
The project that was initiated by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta was initially meant to commence in September 2021 and has been awaiting the nod of President Ruto.
However, sources privy to the progress on implementation plans of the project say the new administration has been reluctant about the tolling of the road which they fear will fret the economy of President Ruto’s Rift Valley backyard.
The French consortium, made up of Vinci Highways SAS, Meridian Infrastructure Africa Fund, and Vinci Concessions SAS, was expected to recover its investments in 30 years by charging toll fees for the use of the road.
Mau Summit road, which would have been expanded into a four-lane dual carriageway through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, is the main link from Nairobi to western Kenya and the neighbouring countries of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to an undisclosed source, the move was occasioned by the absence of an alternative route for motorists who did not want to pay toll fees, as is the case with the Nairobi Expressway.
To deal with the challenge, the contractors came up with a plan that would see those whose movements were within a county exempted from paying toll fees.
The French contractors have already done the feasibility study and shared it with the Kenya National Highway Authority (Kenha).
In September last year visiting French Minister of State for Development, Francophonie said it was up to Ruto to decide when works on the Northern Corridor road would begin.
Being the first PPP project that AfDB’s board approved under the bank’s recently established PPP Framework, AfDB approved the financing of $150 million (Sh18.5 billion) to support the project.
World Bank’s private firm International Finance Corporation (IFC), was to finance an unspecified sum either debt or equity into the project.
Another arm of the World Bank Group, the International Development Association (IDA), was expected to provide a partial risk guarantee for the four-lane highway.
