Almost five years since the national government unveiled plans to dual the Nairobi - Mombasa highway at a cost of Ksh300 billion, the project is yet to kick off.
The project was one of the ambitious plans by President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration. The design of the road was in a way that it would accommodate vehicles driving at speeds of 100km/hr and above, and reduce the time spent between Mombasa and Nairobi from the current eight hours to four hours.
The 473-kilometer road was to have two lanes on either side and run parallel to the current Nairobi - Mombasa highway.
However, the project has been marred with controversies, technicalities, and blunders, that made it stall in 2017.
The Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway failed to take off after a US firm that was contracted to undertake the construction at a cost of Ksh300 billion rejected an offer that was presented by the Jubilee administration.
The government approached the US firm with a similar deal to that of the Nairobi Expressway - a Private Public Partnership (PPP). In this case, the multinational company would do the construction and run it for a number of years until it recovers its costs from the toll charged on motorists.
The US firm reportedly responded to Kenya's offer by directing the country to acquire a loan to facilitate the construction works.
"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," the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) stated in its report.
The project also attracted criticism from the political leaders as the firm which was tasked with the construction received the offer on August 5, 2017, two days before the General Election.
Kenyans questioned the deal noting that it would go unscrutinised considering the country was focused on the elections with President Uhuru's administration seeking re-election.
Another hitch that derailed the road project which was set to have 19 interchanges, was the single sourcing of the firm to build the road, with experts arguing that it may have denied the country other cheaper options for the same quality of work.
It further faced queries from the National Assembly Committee on Transport in 2018, where a senior Transport official was questioned how the American firm bagged the deal.
With all the hitches, the plan to build the Nairobi - Mombasa Expressway, which dates back to July 2015, has never kicked off. The project was as a result of a memorandum of understanding that Kenya sealed with former US President Barrack Obama's administration.
A projection from the American company had indicated that it would employ over 4,000 people and provide training capacities to Kenya on how to runs similar multi-billion projects.
The government had also proposed the establishment of three economic zones along the Mombasa - Nairobi corridor that would be stationed at the major interchanges and also feed to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
It was a critical project for the US and during former President Donald Trump’s administration, it was seen as checking China’s influence in Kenya and the African continent.
But even as Uhuru highlighted his legacy projects during the Madaraka Day Celebrations on June 1 at Uhuru Gardens, he failed to disclose the progress of the road which was set to be a game-changer in the transport industry.
