Cabinet Secretary Saves Kenyans from Road Taxes

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has ordered an immediate halt to plans by a roads agency to start taxing motorists using major roads in Nairobi.

Macharia ordered the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to suspend the move, blaming the roads agency of not consulting with the transport docket before arriving at such an initiative.

In a statement from the Ministry, the CS said that Kenyans were not ready for the exercise, adding that the move was out to taint the good image of a strategic infrastructure programme that the government is in the course of implementing.

The Minister’s order comes after KeNHA had put up billboards informing road users of plans to introduce tolling for the Nairobi-Nakuru, Nairobi-Mombasa, Thika Superhighway and Nairobi’s Southern Bypass.

The message on the billboards, which had been erected along various roads in the capital read, ‘Pay-Use-Save Tolling Coming Soon’.

For a long time, there have been plans by the government to introduce tolling, which is paying a fee electronically at a tolling booth for the distance that a driver uses a specific road aimed at improving the roads’ kitty.

“The ministry has as such directed the various implementing partners to remove the said billboards, pending conclusion of the infrastructure funding policy study,” the statement read in part.

However, the Cabinet Secretary's statement does not fully disqualify a future possibility of imposing taxes for use of roads by motorists.

The move by KeNHA to tax motorists had received public outburst, with Kenyans decrying subjection to double taxation, arguing that it was tax money that had been used to construct the roads.