The Ministry of Transport has announced plans to toll specific roads across the country as part of a broader strategy to enhance the development and maintenance of key roads.
A draft Road Tolling Policy shared on Wednesday, February 12, seeks to impose charges on motorists using some of the newly constructed roads and other major highways.
According to Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir, the decision to toll major roads across the country was due to the funding gap caused by budgetary and financial constraints.
In the draft Roads Tolling Policy, the CS listed 12 categories of vehicles that will be subjected to the charges when using the toll roads, among them matatus and minibuses.
Other classifications of vehicles set to be subjected to toll fees include rickshaws commonly known as three-wheelers, passenger cars, pick-ups, light trucks, medium trucks, large buses, heavy trucks, and articulated trucks.
The CS announced that the classification of vehicles that are subjected to tolling fees would be reviewed periodically due to technological developments.
However, in the draft Road Polling Policy, Chirchir excluded military vehicles and equipment, police vehicles and equipment, ambulances and fire service vehicles from tolling charges.
“The application of these classes may be adapted for specific roads. Not all vehicle classes need necessarily to be tolled, and classes may be grouped if appropriate and justifiable from an economic point of view,” CS Chirchir stated.
Despite exempting the four categories of vehicles, CS Chirchir clarified that the aforementioned could be restricted from accessing toll roads without pay on occasions where there is traffic snarl-up or road maintenance work.
Further, the four categories of vehicles must obtain and present a valid tag to claim their exemption privilege. “In an emergency, police, ambulance and fire service vehicles will not be delayed, even if they are not equipped with the appropriate tag,” read part of the draft tolling policy.
The latest announcement comes a week after the Ministry of Transport announced plans to embark on a public participation exercise on the draft Road Tolling Policy.
Speaking on February 3, during a meeting with the Technical Working Group tasked with implementing the Road Tolling Policy, Transport Principal Secretary Joseph Mbugua called for an urgent rollout of the plan for public participation.
The meeting followed a High Court ruling on January 21, that lifted initial orders that stopped the government from tolling five major highways in Kenya.
