kilam
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 5, 2011
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Kenyans will have to wait longer for the planned 485-kilometre Mombasa-Nairobi Expressway as financing and construction of the project continue to delay close to four years since its conception.
The mega project whose ground breaking was set for last year, before being pushed to January this year and later to June, is yet to kick-off , rising questions over its viability.
Among major hiccups on the US–backed project now appears to be financing as corruption comes back to haunt the country.
Questions on the cost remain unanswered where according to insiders familiar with the project, the Kenyan authorities–Transport Ministry and the Kenya National Highways Authority(KeNHA) had inflated the cost by 66.7 per cent, from an estimated cost of US$1.8billion(Sh185.7billion) to US$3billion(US$309.5billion).
This raised eyebrows leading to the US government temporarily halting the project to be implemented by American construction company-Bechtel International.
Bechtel provided a formal offer in October 2016 and since then, KeNHA has been in discussions with the contractor which was concluded in July 2017, and the commercial contract signed on August 5, 2017.
Construction was set to commence in 2018, according to KeNHA, which had expected to have the first section opened by end of this year.
In May this year, US ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter said his government was scrutinising the proposal to establish if it offered value for money for Kenyans, especially a time when the country is struggling with a ballooning debt.
“We are still working on the finance. Kenya has a challenge of debt and we are wary of burdening Kenyans,” the Envoy said in an interview in May.
www.the-star.co.ke
The mega project whose ground breaking was set for last year, before being pushed to January this year and later to June, is yet to kick-off , rising questions over its viability.
Among major hiccups on the US–backed project now appears to be financing as corruption comes back to haunt the country.
Questions on the cost remain unanswered where according to insiders familiar with the project, the Kenyan authorities–Transport Ministry and the Kenya National Highways Authority(KeNHA) had inflated the cost by 66.7 per cent, from an estimated cost of US$1.8billion(Sh185.7billion) to US$3billion(US$309.5billion).
This raised eyebrows leading to the US government temporarily halting the project to be implemented by American construction company-Bechtel International.
Bechtel provided a formal offer in October 2016 and since then, KeNHA has been in discussions with the contractor which was concluded in July 2017, and the commercial contract signed on August 5, 2017.
Construction was set to commence in 2018, according to KeNHA, which had expected to have the first section opened by end of this year.
In May this year, US ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter said his government was scrutinising the proposal to establish if it offered value for money for Kenyans, especially a time when the country is struggling with a ballooning debt.
“We are still working on the finance. Kenya has a challenge of debt and we are wary of burdening Kenyans,” the Envoy said in an interview in May.
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