Nairobi’s Major Roads Targeted As Toll Fees Set For Comeback

The National Assembly’s Committee on Delegated Legislation is now vouching for the re-introduction of toll fees through the Public Finance Management (National Road Toll Fund) Regulations 2021.

If the MPs adopt the proposals, the government will create a National Roads Toll Fund that will be responsible for collecting the tolls.

The law will also give powers to the Transport Cabinet Secretary to declare roads or sections of public roads as toll roads.

“This means that both new (green-field) and existing roads (brownfields) can be subject to tolling programmes, always providing that these are demonstrated to be both economically and financially feasible and their social and environmental impacts are shown to be sustainable,” the Treasury told parliament.

Among the major roads targeted by the government include Nairobi-Nakuru, Nairobi-Mombasa, Nairobi-Thika, Nairobi’s Southern Bypass, Jogoo Road, Lang’ata Road and Ngong Road.

Currently, the government has been charging motorists for use of public roads through roads maintenance and fuel levies charges.

The Roads Maintenance Levy is charged at Ksh18 per litre for petrol and diesel.

Toll charges were introduced in Kenya in the 1980s but were scrapped due to massive corruption in the 1990s.

It was expected that they would be re-introduced through public-private partnerships (PPP) such as the Nairobi Expressway where motorists will pay between Ksh100 and Ksh1,550, depending on the size of the cars and distance covered.

Toll fees will also be charged on the 223km Rironi-Nakuru-Mau Summit which will be constructed by French Consortium of Companies at a cost of Ksh160 billion.

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