We did not stop funding of Sh300 billion expressway, says US

The US embassy in Nairobi has clarified that it did not stop the financing of the proposed Sh300 billion Nairobi-Mombasa highway – and that it still supports the project.

An article carried by this newspaper had wrongly asserted that the US ambassador Kyle McCarter had announced the suspension of the project.

“This was incorrect. The correct position is that the US government still supports this project which is a public private partnership and we did not announce any such suspension,” said a US embassy spokeswoman.

When President Uhuru Kenyatta and US's Donald Trump met in White House in August last year, “both sides welcomed the proposal by United States engineering and construction firm Bechtel Corporation to build a modern superhighway from Nairobi to Mombasa,” according to a joint statement issued by White House.

“Both sides agreed to undertake further consultations to conclude the terms of the financing agreement,” the joint statement had said.

SOMALIA

The embassy clarified that this is a public-private partnership (PPP) and that it is not a government-to-government project.

The embassy has also clarified that Mr McCarter had not met with Somalia's President Mohamed Farmaajo as quoted in a previous article: “As I said in a recent interview, when I travelled to Mogadishu earlier this year, Ambassador Yamamoto and I met with advisors to President Farmaajo.

“The United States is a strong partner of both Kenya and Somalia and we encourage both parties to resolve their dispute peacefully – given their shared interests as neighbours – and instead focus their efforts on the fight against al-Shabaab and building the blue economy,” said the embassy statement.