You will start driving on the expressway linking Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to James Gichuru on June 30, 2022.
A public notice published by the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) on Friday indicates that the highway is 94 per cent complete.
The government has in the past said the completion date of the road had been moved to April, with President Uhuru Kenyatta expressing optimism in late December that he was looking forward to driving on it soon.
Kenha says the total cost of the road is 660,800,000 US dollars invested by China Roads and Bridges Corporation in a public-private partnership arrangement with the authority. The project’s local liaison is registered as Moja Expressway Company Limited.
The company will man the road for 30 years, collecting toll fees to recoup the money invested in it.
Upon the expiry of the 30-year period, the notice shows, the project company will hand over the road to the government.
“The project company shall hand over the site, the right of way and the project road back to the contracting authority at the expiry of date in the condition required by the hardback requirements as prescribed in the project agreement,” the details show.
The agency also says the implementation of the project was optimised from three years since its commencement on July 1, 2020, to under two years.
The public-private partnerships agreement for the 27.1km road was signed on October 15, 2019.
The Kenyan government's role is to secure the project from any “political events such as nationalisation or expropriation of all part of the project network: unlawful or unauthorised or unjustified revocation of, or refusal and or delay to renew or grant any applicable permit required by the project company to perform its obligations….,” the notice indicates.
The agency says the state had committed in a letter dated August 20, 2020, that it would protect the project from damage arising from riots, blockades, embargoes and insurrection or civil commotions. Others are inconveniences that emanate from closure of borders, roads, harbors, airports, declared wars, invasions by foreign armies and declared emergencies.
