The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Committee, under the National Treasury, has rejected Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway proposal over failure to meet evaluation requirements set by the country’s PPP Act of 2021.
The decisions comes after a review of the Project Development Report (PDR) revealed that the proposal did not meet requires and was unclear on critical details, including land acquisition strategies for the greenfield project.
“It was determined that the proposal does not meet the relevant criteria and should be abandoned per Section 43(11)(c) of the PPP Act,2021,” noted the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA).
While the specific proposal has been rejected, the government has not ruled out the project entirely. The PPP Committee has directed KeNHA to consider restructuring the project to meet the evaluation criteria by expanding the existing Nairobi-Mombasa Highway (A8) instead of building a new expressway. This revised proposal could then be resubmitted for consideration.
The initial proposal had aimed to create a 419-kilometer, four-lane toll road that would have drastically reduced travel time between Nairobi and Mombasa from over 10 hours to about 4.5 hours. It was a project that was envisioned to mobilize domestic capital, with plans to raise KSh 129 billion from local investors, including pension funds and banks.
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