10 foreign firms in race to build Nairobi-Mau Summit toll road

Plans to charge motorists user fees on the Nakuru-Nairobi highway have started in earnest with the selection of 10 pre-qualified companies to bid for the multi-billion shilling road construction and management contract.

The 10, which are all international firms, responded to the Kenya National Highways Authority’s (KeNHA) request for qualification, which closed yesterday afternoon.

The firms are bidding for the contract to expand the 175 kilometre road from Rironi to Mau Summit into a four-lane dual carriageway highway. The works will involve re-carpeting of Rironi -Mai Mahiu- Naivasha Road (Escarpment Road), which will also comprise putting up of toll stations along the highway under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.

“We have received strong interest in this project right from the onset and we are sure the evaluation will yield strong candidates to tender for it,” said George Kiiru, the Project Pre-Qualification Committee chairman.

Once launched, the toll roads will see motorists dig deeper into their pockets to pay the set user fees to help the contractors recoup their investment. This is one of the four major roads where the State plans to  charge motorists additional tax – besides what they already pay through the fuel levy. 

Other roads earmarked for tolling are Nairobi-Mombasa, Thika Super Highway and Nairobi’s Southern Bypass.

KeNHA said the winning firm will be required to operate and maintain that Nairobi Southern Bypass, which was commissioned last year.

Motorists are already paying road maintenance levy at the rate of Sh18 per litre of petrol and diesel. The PPP arrangement will see the private sector raise money for the project, design, construct, maintain and operate the road on pre-agreed standards and specifications for 30 year before handing it over to KeNHA.

KeNHA had invited competent local and international firms to express interest in undertaking the project.
The agency said it would evaluate the bids and request pre-qualified firms to submit technical and financial proposals.
“It is after this stage that the eventual winning bid will be announced to undertake construction of the project,” KeNHA said.

The Nairobi – Nakuru – Mau Summit road is part of the Northern Corridor and among eastern Africa’s most important roads that transport most of the Westbound cargo from the Port of Mombasa and the capital Nairobi.

“The project will significantly reduce the travel time between Nairobi and Mau Summit with the perennial traffic jam experienced in Nakuru town and around Gilgil becoming a thing of the past,” said Peter Mundinia, the KeNHA director-general.

“The section of the road through Nakuru town will be elevated to facilitate free flow of traffic,” he added.

Previous disclosures indicate that the Mombasa-Nairobi section of the highway will have five toll stations, including (at Mariakani and the Machakos turn-off), while Rironi, Naivasha and Lanet will host three on the Nairobi-Nakuru road.

When tolling was first mooted four years ago, it was proposed that motorists would be charged at the rate of Sh1.20 per kilometre for passenger cars and Sh1.79 for pick-ups and matatus.

Buses were to part with Sh2.39 per kilometre, medium trucks Sh2.39 and large trucks Sh3.59.

Roads tolls were initially introduced in Kenya in the late 1980s, but were scrapped in the mid-1990s in favour of the Roads Maintenance Levy to eliminate rampant corruption at the toll stations.

Tolling is, however, fraught with immense legal challenges – including the demand that government provides alternative freeways for those who do not want to use them or are unable to pay.

It has been successfully argued in many jurisdictions that introducing tolls on major roads without providing viable toll-free alternatives amounts to a breach of citizens’ right to free movement while choosing to charge tolls on particular roads while leaving others free amounts to discrimination of citizens based merely on where they live.

In an interview with the Business Daily last year, Transport secretary James Macharia had said the government was working out a mechanism that would give motorists alternatives to toll payment.

“In terms of fairness and equity, we must make sure that we come up with alternatives that will work well for motorists,” he said.

Mr Macharia gave an example of the planned double-decker road that is to be constructed from Westlands to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as a good alternative where the government might decide to charge those using the new express road as opposed to levying them on the existing one.