One of the news from the President US visit is the agreement on the construction of the 477 km, 4-6 lane Usahihi Nairobi-Mombasa expressway, which will take some 3-4 years to construct, and reduce travel time between the two towns will be reduced to 4 ½ hours from the usual almost 8 hours. The Nairobi Mombasa expressway will be done under the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) model just like the Nairobi Expressway project. The Nairobi- Mombasa Expressway project is part of Kenya’s Vision 2030 mega projects and hence a testament that the long-term planning and visioning of the country is important now and in the future. In order to satisfy various factors, and incentivize developers and financiers, the project proponents undertook a detailed feasibility study and consultations with various stakeholders, which focused on demand projections, traffic projections, and affordability projections for the project.
PPPs will enable the road to be built on time and budget in addition to providing greater value for money (VfM) than the conventional and traditional methods of procurement and project finance. PPPs enable the operationalization of the concept of bundling the services as one package and handing over the same to the developer, who once done with the project operates and maintains the project for some time as they recoup their investments before handing over (hand-back) the project to the public sector. Bundling of the activities and project aspects ensures that the contractors will be innovative in developing the road such that maintenance costs are cheaper and hence long-lasting projects such that at the time of handing back, the project can be utilized for much more years. The traditional way of handing projects works piecemeal disincentivizes developers and hence many projects developed that way have high maintenance costs and hence a burden to the public sector. Under PPPs, risks, which have a big probability of escalating costs, are identified, costed and assigned to the party best able to handle them and in most cases, it’s the private party that assumes such risks. The role of the public sector under PPPs is to set targets, goals, specifications, standards and desired outcomes
It is important to appreciate the importance of such infrastructure to our daily lives and the wider economy. Roads and bridges help us to get to and from work and move commercial goods and services over long distances, and the Nairobi-Mombasa Road serves many countries in the region besides Kenyans. Once the project starts, over 2,573 jobs will be created annually during its operations and maintenance, hence advancing the government’s agenda for enhanced job creation. Dr Giti is an urban management, public – private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com , @danielgiti
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 