BRT budget cut by Sh1bn as State shifts priorities
The Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) Station at Safari Park along Thika Superhighway on January 9, 2023. The multi-million shilling project with its partially completed stages lies idle even as the idea to improve the city’s public transport network, reduce travel costs and time remains a pipe dream. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NMG
Budgetary allocation for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has been slashed by Sh1 billion, an indicator that the transport system is not a priority for the new administration of President William Ruto.
In the latest supplementary budget for the current Financial Year ending June, the completion target for BRT stations is also being revised from a projection of 48 percent to zero percent, meaning there will be no more construction of the bus-based transit system in the current financial year.
The projected works completed on BRT terminals have also been reduced from 80 percent to zero percent, in a mini-budget that has seen Treasury trim the road transport budget by Sh47.29 billion.
Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga in September last year blamed the delay in the completion of the Sh5.6 billion BRT system that runs from Kasarani through the Nairobi city centre to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) area on budget constraints.
Mr Hinga said Treasury was yet to allocate the project an additional Sh3 billion required to complete it.
However, the allocation for the 27-kilometre Kasarani-Kenyatta National Hospital line which has been under construction on and off by Chinese firm Stecol Corporation since 2020, was reduced from Sh1.179 billion to Sh129 million.
The BRT, a means of reducing man-hours lost on traffic, was supposed to be opened for public use in June 2022.
“The total project cost for the current line under construction was about Sh5 billion and we have spent up to Sh2 billion to date,” said Mr Hinga in September last year.
The first phase of BRT dedicated two innermost lanes of the Thika Superhighway to special high-capacity buses and erected boarding ramps to ease access to the buses.
