After years of back and forth, Kenya is finally ready to actualise the construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi Expressway. The state contracted a Korean company, Korean Overseas Infrastructure and Urban Development Corporation Africa, to oversee the exercise that would see the expressway managed as a toll road. In its feasibility study, the newly-contracted company estimated the cost of the road at USD3 billion and the project is expected to be completed in three years. This is an increase from the original construction budget of USD2.7 billion. In July, the company explained that the Kenyan Government proposed that US-based firm, Bechtel Engineering fund the project and recoup its money in a toll-based model – a proposition that the company was not comfortable with. The company’s spokesperson Aileen Easton detailed that the firm declined the proposal, countering with a contractual-based model where the Kenyan government would secure the funds from another company or a loan to finance the project.
SOURCE: KENYANS