The Treasury has set aside Sh816million over the four financial years to 2025/2026 for land acquisition along the planned Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit dual highway project corridor, lifting hope for an upgrade of the key 233-kilometer road linking western Kenya to the capital city and beyond.
Budget estimates by the Treasury showed that the land acquisition funds would be split to cover the section between Nairobi to Nakuru and the stretch linking Mau Summit to Nakuru.
Some Sh50 million has been apportioned in the current financial year for land acquisition on the Nairobi-Nakuru section with Sh48 million marked for use in the new financial year starting July. The amount will be raised to Sh150 million each for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 fiscal years.
The Treasury allocated Sh50million in the current financial year for land purchases on the Nakuru- Mau Summit project and plans to scale up the amount to Sh68million in the new financial year starting and Sh150million each for the two successive financial years to 2025/26.
An initial blueprint showed that the highway would be expanded into a four-lane dual-carriageway through a Public-Private Partnership model.
The project will also involve widening the existing Rironi- Mai Mahiu–Naivasha road to becoming a seven-meter carriageway with two-meter shoulders on both sides, construction of a four-kilometer elevated highway through Nakuru town, and building and improvement of interchanges along the highway.
The Rironi–Nakuru–Mai Mahiu road forms a vital part of the most important transport corridor in Kenya — the Northern Corridor— which originates in Mombasa and terminates in Malaba.
Initiated by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, the construction of the 233-kilometer Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Toll Road was initially meant to kick off in September 2021.
A consortium of three French firms had indicated that they were ready to break ground on the project having received the financial backing of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank. The French 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 for the use of the road.
The lee ways for the key link road corridor have already been mapped by the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) with indications that much of the reserves are owned by the agency hence there would be minimal acquisition of land for the project.
By last year the French contractors had already concluded the feasibility study on the project and shared it with Kenha awaiting a possible financial closure. Kenha in 2019 indicated the project would cost about $ 700 million (Sh96.36 billion).
