President William Ruto has dropped the French and is courting China for the dualling of the Nairobi–Malaba highway that his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta had offered to a consortium of French firms.
Dr Ruto, who is in Beijing for a summit of African leaders, said his host Xi Jinping had given the green light for technocrats from the two countries to negotiate the finer details of funding and construction of the proposed Rironi-Mau Summit-Malaba dual carriageway.
The announcement followed a bilateral meeting between the Kenyan delegation and Chinese officials ahead of the ninth Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (Focac), which starts Wednesday through Friday.
Months after taking power, the Ruto administration stopped French contractors from starting works on the mega road project, citing concerns over costly toll charges for use of the superhighway.
In April, Christopher Kirigua, the exiting director-general for the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) at the Treasury, maintained that the project had not yet been cancelled.
He reckoned the construction of the highway was under review, saying its proposed toll fees had derailed the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Road project, which was aimed at decongesting the main artery from Nairobi to western Kenya and the neighbouring countries of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The effort to open talks with Chinese firms all but confirms the official termination of the contract signed under the Uhuru Kenyatta administration.
“I seek China’s concurrence in urging our teams to conclude the necessary procedures by the end of the year,” Dr Ruto said yesterday in Beijing.
The president said the meeting with Mr Xi also agreed to discuss regional infrastructure projects such as the expansion of SGR from Naivasha to Malaba and dualling of the Muthaiga-Kiambu road.
Since ascending to power in September 2022, the Ruto administration has been having second thoughts about the toll, with his then Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen saying the road would be built without toll fees.
The termination of the project—which was to be funded from various sources including equity by Vinci Group, loans from the African Development Bank (AfDB), and guarantees from the World Bank — is likely to expose Kenya to litigation and a diplomatic spat with France that backed its firms for the deal.
A consortium of three French firms, which won the tender procured by Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) in 2018 for $1.3 billion (about Sh169 billion), indicated that it was ready to break ground on the project having secured the financial backing of the AfDB and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The consortium, made up of Vinci Highways SAS, Meridian Infrastructure Africa Fund, and Vinci Concessions SAS, was expected to recoup its investments in 30 years by charging toll fees on the road.
The deal was capped in 2019 when French President Emmanuel Macron paid a visit to Kenya as part of efforts to recast the style of France’s engagement in Africa, hoping that building warmer cultural and personal ties will help boost business, trade and investment.
The French contractor had proposed a fee of $6 (about Sh780) for motorists using small cars over 175 kilometres, rising to $50 (Sh6,500) for large trucks, according to officials at the Treasury’s PPP Unit. Motorists using the Nairobi Expressway pay a toll fee of about Sh18.4 per kilometre.
The section, reportedly the busiest along the Northern corridor handling about 20,000 vehicles daily, stretches 233 kilometres, from Rironi in Kiambu County through Nakuru to Mau Summit.
Kenya has in the past spent billions of shillings in compensating contractors for abandoned projects after losing cases in the courts.
KeNHA, for example, paid Israeli road contractor SBI International Holdings Kenya Sh6.19 billion in the financial year ended June 2023 for breach of nine contracts following orders issued by the High Court in Nairobi and international arbitrators in 2021.
The Weekly Review, a sister publication, had in early 2023 reported that political undercurrents were at play in the award of the road contract to the French consortium, which was battling it out with Mota Engil Group from Portugal.
The publication, citing official correspondence, reported that the PPP Unit blew the whistle on irregular award of the deal to the French, citing influence from an agent close to former President Kenyatta.
The documents showed that KeNHA went ahead to award the tender despite the PPP Unit flagging an irregularity in computing income taxes in the bid submitted by the French contractors, dismissing the concerns as computational errors.
The successful negotiations with Chinese financiers and contractors will underline Beijing’s dominance in funding major road projects in the country.
They include the tolled Nairobi Expressway (27km), Nairobi-Thika Highway (50km), Nairobi Eastern and Northern Bypass Highway (72km), Nairobi Western Bypass Road, Nairobi Southern Bypass, Kibwezi-Mutomo-Kitui Road, Nairobi Inland Container Depot and Access Roads and Kipsigak-Serem-Shamakhokho Road.
“These ties [with China] have been mutually beneficial to our two countries, phenomenally transforming Kenya’s railway, road and port infrastructure, and deepening people to people exchanges,” Dr Ruto said on Tuesday.
“Through our bilateral cooperation with China, the Mombasa-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway, the Nairobi Expressway and many rural roads have been built, opening up the country and making Kenya a key transport hub not just in Eastern Africa but the continent.”
