Editorials

EDITORIAL: Treasury owes Kenyans answers about toll roads

rotich

Henry Rotich, Treasury Cabinet Secretary. file photo | nmg

The Treasury has, once again, signalled its strong resolve to privatise Kenyan roads by advertising for a toll operator to run the Nakuru and Mombasa highways.

This newspaper has repeatedly raised public interest queries on the proposed privatisation of taxpayer-built roads, which no government official or agency has answered satisfactorily yet.

The convenient answer by State bureaucrats has been that Kenyans must to be prepared to pay the price if they wish to ride on smooth roads.

Parliament is the legally mandated institution that could demand answers from the Executive on the proposed privatisations, but the legislators appear to have other priorities and only gloss over the matter whenever they summon ministry officials.

As such, the so-called public private partnership (PPP) appears to be rolling fast to implementation. Billions of shillings of taxpayer funds are at stake, and that is why Kenyans have a right to get full answers on the proposed privatisation.

The cost of dualling the Mombasa-Nairobi highway alone has been estimated at about Sh230 billion, which the government says is being sourced from America’s export-import (Exim) Bank.
It is projected that construction of the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit road will cost a similar amount.

These are colossal amounts that will burden Kenyans for years to come. A Key question here that the Treasury has not answered yet is, if this is a PPP project, then why is the government the one sourcing funds from the Exim Bank?

Why has the Treasury set up a fund to guarantee these private companies of a return on their investment, if they deem these to be viable PPP projects?

What risks are the private companies taking, for them to be guaranteed payment by Kenyan taxpayers? Why should Kenyans who already pay ordinary taxes and fuel levy be forced again to finance private contractors?

Will the government provide free, alternative roads for use by citizens who cannot afford the toll roads, to avoid impeding their freedom of movement as provided in the Constitution?
All State bureaucrats involved in conceptualisation of these PPPs should realise that any short cuts that ignore the letter of the law will be extremely costly.