President William Ruto has abandoned the French and is now courting China for the Nairobi-Malaba highway dualisation project that his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta offered to a French consortium.
Dr Ruto, who is in Beijing to attend the African leaders summit, said his host Xi Jinping had given the green light for experts from the two countries to negotiate the finer details of financing and construction of the proposed dual carriageway between Raeruni, Maw Summit and Malaba.
The announcement came after a bilateral meeting between the Kenyan delegation and Chinese officials ahead of the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which begins on Wednesday and runs through Friday.
Months after taking power, Ruto’s administration blocked French contractors from starting work on the massive highway project, citing concerns about exorbitant tolls for using the highway.
In April, Christopher Quirigu, the current director general of public-private partnerships at the Treasury Department, confirmed that the project had not yet been cancelled.
He added that the construction of the expressway was under review, saying the proposed toll had stalled the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Road project, which was aimed at easing congestion on the main artery from Nairobi to western Kenya and neighbouring countries Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Efforts to open talks with Chinese companies confirm the official termination of the contract signed under the Uhuru Kenyatta administration.
“I seek China’s approval to urge our teams to complete the necessary procedures by the end of the year,” Dr Ruto said in Beijing yesterday.
The President said the meeting with Mr Xi also agreed to discuss regional infrastructure projects such as the extension of the Ngiri-SGR railway line from Naivasha to Malaba and the dualisation of the Muthaiga-Kiambu road.
Since coming to power in September 2022, the Ruto administration has begun to reconsider the tolls, with then Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen saying the road would be built without tolls.
Terminating the project – which was to be financed from various sources including Vinci Group equity, loans from the African Development Bank and guarantees from the World Bank – would likely expose Kenya to litigation and a diplomatic row with France, which backed its companies in the deal.
A consortium of three French companies, which won the $1.3 billion (about Sh169 billion) tender floated by the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) in 2018, has said it is ready to start work on the project after securing financial support from the African Development Bank and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
The consortium, which consists of Vinci Highways SAS, Meridian Infrastructure Africa Fund and Vinci Concessions SAS, was expected to recoup its investment in 30 years by charging tolls on the road.
The agreement culminated in 2019 when French President Emmanuel Macron visited Kenya as part of efforts to reshape France’s engagement in Africa, in the hope that building warmer cultural and personal ties would help boost business, trade and investment.
The French contractor has proposed a toll of $6 (about 780 shillings) for motorists using small vehicles for more than 175 kilometres, rising to $50 (6,500 shillings) for large trucks, according to officials at the Treasury’s Public-Private Partnership Unit. Motorists using the Nairobi Expressway pay a toll of about 18.4 shillings per kilometre.
This section is said to be the busiest along the Northern Corridor, handling about 20,000 vehicles daily, and stretches 233 kilometres, from Raroni in Kiambu County via Nakuru to Mau Summit.
Kenya has in the past spent billions of shillings compensating contractors for abandoned projects after losing court cases.
For example, KeNHA paid Israeli contractor SBI International Holdings Kenya Sh6.19 billion in the financial year ending June 2023 for breach of nine contracts following orders from the Nairobi High Court and international arbitrators in 2021.
The Weekly Review, a sister publication, reported in early 2023 that political trends were at play in awarding the road contract to the French consortium, which was competing with Portugal’s Mota Angel Group.
The newspaper reported, citing official correspondence, that it was the People’s Progressive Party unit that revealed that the deal was illegally awarded to the French, pointing to the influence of one of the agents close to former President Kenyatta.
The documents showed that KeNHA went ahead with awarding the tender even though the PPP unit pointed out an income tax irregularity in the bid submitted by the French contractors, and dismissed the concerns as accounting errors.
Successful negotiations with Chinese financiers and contractors will confirm Beijing’s dominance in financing major road projects in the country.
These roads include the Nairobi Expressway (27 km), Nairobi-Thika Road (50 km), Nairobi East-North Road (72 km), Nairobi West Bypass Road, Nairobi South Bypass Road, Kibwezi-Mutumo-Kitui Road, Nairobi Inland Container Depot and access roads, and Kipsegak-Serim-Shamachuko Road.
“These relations (with China) have been mutually beneficial for our two countries, leading to a massive transformation of Kenya’s railway, road and port infrastructure, and deepening people-to-people exchanges,” Dr Ruto said on Tuesday.
“Through our bilateral cooperation with China, the Mombasa-Naivasha railway, the Nairobi Expressway and many rural roads have been built, opening up the country and making Kenya a major transportation hub not only in East Africa but in the continent.”