The Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen gives a blow by blow account of his blueprint at the helm of his docket, his achievements and challenges in the last five months in office and the enormous task he is navigating to ensure the Sh900billion worth of commitments he inherited from his predecessor comes to fruition.
As a seasoned lawyer and a polished politician, Murkomen defended his Elgeyo Marakwet Senatorial seat thrice before he was appointed to his current docket to succeed James Macharia.
And in the footsteps of his predecessor, Murkomen is keen to complete the existing projects in the roads sector, the Standard Gauge Railway, the Mombasa and Lamu Port, reform the aviation sector and modernise the commuter transport in Nairobi.
Speaking to Stanley Lugalia in an exclusive interview with The Informer Media Group, the CS lays it bare the huge budget hole the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project left in the country’s economy with an estimated Sh100billion annual loan payout but still insists it is feasible project coupled by the Lamu and Mombasa Ports that are on his priority list alongside reforms at the road agencies and the aviation sector.
- It’s almost five months now since you assumed office as the Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary, what are some of the key highlights that you would pin-point as tangible results achieved and challenges so far?
First of all, let me say that it has been very challenging time in our county and I can’t even imagine it looks like it has been a year since I came to this office because of the responsibilities and demands of this public office especially in relation to delivery of so many key projects for the county. We are navigating are very difficult moment. We have inherited here commitments that are over Sh900billion which is part of the portfolio that is yet to be completed with a pending bill of already committed and expended money of over Sh140billion.
So my first responsibility has been to work my way out to see how we can access resources to complete those projects. You know in some of these projects, government priorities changed a few years ago and some of the money that should have built the roads were involved in money heist that happened towards the end of last year’s transition. So the first responsibility is to work out payment of pending bills. We have made progress. We have returned a number of contractors this week. Six months down the line based on negotiations, consultations and getting to innovatively to access some of the resources that would have been accessed years later including application of what is called annuity the fund for the purpose of completing some of the projects. This is on the road sector.
We have also planned for the maintainance of the roads, a number of contracts have been awarded by the various agencies here to maintain the roads and particularly of significance to many Kenyans is the road famously Mombasa Road which contractual works will start any time from now and we have a contractor who is mobilising to go on site and in less than a year we should be able to resolve all the problems related to 27 kilometers Mombasa Road based on what we had to do with the Expressway.
- There have been concerns over dominance of foreign contractors in almost all major road contracts at the expense of local contractors who are able to execute quality work to fruition. How is your office going to remedy this?
Yes, as I said some of these maintainance contracts that are of a billion shillings we have made sure that it is local contractors that are given the work as part of the measures to ensure that we give opportunities to local contractors to do work, building their capacity, making sure that equitably the people of Kenya themselves are able to build their own capacity.
Of course in the past and a bigger portfolio of the pending bills is owed to foreign contractors especially Chinese contractors rightly so because China government was also helping us to be able to access some of the funding that we could not get it elsewhere and of course it comes as tied funding.
You get the funding from particular country and you have to get a contractor from that country. So we are not having Chinese contractors by accident, it is by the design of the funding that we are from their country the same way we have Spanish companies, we have French companies being contractors in projects that are funded by their own countries in energy, in roads and in the port. Japanese companies have done roads funded by JICA, Ngong Road for example and at the port of Mombasa. So that is a standard requirement of any money that is funded especially by what is known as EXIM Banks of foreign countries. So we have no fight with any of these companies we just want to ensure that we meet part of our obligation to ensure that the road projects are completed and of course those that are non-performing they go through punishment like any other company.
A few things we are trying to do is to complete the existing projects both in the roads, the port of Mombasa, the railway and the airports.
In the railway sector we have had to do a few things to ensure that we procure locomotives and rolling stock for the purpose of ensuring the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is performing.
You know that the first assignment for me was to try to handle a dispute between the Kenya Airways and their staff and currently we are progressing to work out a strategy on how to revitalise and make sure Kenya Airways become a profitable company as a pan-African airline with the capacity to handle its own finances unlike the situation now we are still subsidising and we gave ourselves as government one year to make sure that subsidy programme come to an end and a strategic investor is in place to assist Kenya Airways to be profitable.
- Leasing of aircrafts by Kenya Airways has been a core issue as part of its expenditure and possible competition with KLM, how do you intend to harmonise these competing interest?
I don’t think we have any problem with KLM. As you know we progressively KLM’s stake in Kenya Airways has overtime been reduced. The main problem with Kenya Airways is debt. An existing debt based on a project called ‘Project Mawingu’ that they embarked on in 2012 which eventually did not succeed. It was like a rapid expansion of the company and therefore it has left the company with a debt of 1.65billion Dollars. That is what has really broken down Kenya Airways and that is the challenge we want to deal with. Otherwise as a company, Kenya Airways is doing well as an airline compared to many other aviation companies in the world. The problem is historical and we are sitting down to find out how do you deal with this historical problem.
- Recently you were in London in the United Kingdom and expressed intention how you want to implement the critical infrastructure you saw there, to address congestion in Nairobi and the metropolis region, what is your grand plan and why has the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project stalled?
I was there specifically to do the programme that we want to do to establish a modern city in Nairobi in the 425 acres of the Kenya Railways land between Uhuru Highway, Ladhies Road, Haile Selassie Road. We want to do a modern city there. We are working with UK Finance (UKF), the private sector in the UK and the private sector in Kenya first of all to revitalise the central station in Nairobi. That was a very important programme we are pushing and we want to make sure the central station is modernised to become a modern station that can move 30,000 people an hour with a space for meetings, for socialisation, become the melting pot of culture in the city and across the region. That is one of the programme we must that His Excellency the president for salvaging it and the financing that goes with it.
“There was no time that I ever heard that Kenya Kwanza was against SGR. If anything we were just against forcing people to use the Standard Gauge Railway. We wanted freedom of commerce, freedom of movement for people to choose the means of transport they want to use. The first assignment of the president was to declare freedom in terms of movement of goods. You move them by road or you move them by road. I still insist that the rail is cheaper because of the last mile delivery of goods.” Murkomen added.
The CS said the SGR loan exerted heavy pressure to the local economy recording an annual payout of at least Sh100billion annually.
The CS also noted that his ministry is working to have the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is completed and the Lamu Port to boost direct and peripheral services like direct tarde and investment.
“In the next ten years I think we will be an unrivaled port in the continent if we complete the projects we are putting in place now in Lamu and Mombasa Port” The CS noted.
At the same time, the CS implementation of the Sh5.6 billion Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that was being piloted along the Thika Superhighway is still on course.
The stalled project was set to begin operations in June 2022 and is now almost one year behind schedule. The contract was awarded to a Chinese firm, Stecol Corporation.
However, CS discounted claims the Kenya Kwanza team opposed the SGR project saying they were only opposed to forced use of SGR as the only means of cargo transport.
In November last year, CS Murkomen indicated that the SGR line would be extended to Kenya-Uganda border in Kisumu:
The Mombasa-Nairobi phase 1 was done at a cost of Sh327billion while Sh150billion was spent for the extension to Naivasha under phase 2A.
The Phase 2B was to pass through Narok-Bomet-Kericho to Kisumu at a cost of Sh380 billion. However, the CS noted that the costings would be determined by the feasibility study at the time of the implementation.
Further the CS has already ordered a full inventory of all Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) assests and liabilities to deter grabbing of airport land and facilitate recovery of the already illegally carved out assets.
“I have given directions to KAA to make sure that we have a full inventory of all the assets and look for resources to secure all the airstrips and airports.” The CS said.