Sh1.6bn grant to ease traffic in Nairobi

Japan has given Kenya a grant of Sh1.6 billion to help ease traffic in Kenya’s capital city.

The money will be used to expand Ngong Road – the 4.7 km stretch between Adams Arcade and the Ngong Road-Kenyatta Avenue junction.

There will be sidewalks for pedestrians and cyclists once the three-year project, whose deadline is February 2015, is completed.

The deal was sealed yesterday when Finance minister Njeru Githae and Japan’s envoy to Kenya, Mr Toshihisa Takata, put pen to paper at a brief ceremony at Nairobi’s Serena Hotel.

The amount brings to Sh31 billion the money the Japanese Government has given Kenya for building of roads in Nairobi and Mombasa. And this in just a fortnight.

The Mombasa project is funded by a loan of Sh28.9 billion, and it will go towards the building of a 25.7-kilometre road bypass in Mombasa and a link road to the new container terminal in Kipevu.

There are also three “long bridges” ranging between 900m and 1,450m in Mombasa.

Addressing journalists at Saturday’s meeting, Mr Githae said the country banked on Japan to help Kenya roll out the devolved units of government.

“We hope to count on you and hope that you will continue to support us,” he told Mr Takata and the new President of Japan International Cooperation Agency, Dr Akihiko Tanaka, who is in the country.

Mr Takata also said that on-going projects in Nairobi that have been funded by Japan were facing “unfortunate” delays because of “slowness of coordination in the initial stages of work”.

“Relocation or removal of obstacles such as electric poles and wires, water pipes, sewer pipes did not materialise on schedule as originally planned. Time is money. All the stakeholders will need to cooperate with the contractor more closely for construction to be done on time,” the Japanese envoy said.

The envoy sounded unhappy at the delays, saying “Japan is determined to prove its worth as Kenya’s quality partner in achieving the goals of Vision 2030”.

“We are serious in the quality of work including timeliness of completion …Nairobi will benefit from quality work,” he said.

Roads minister Franklin Bett was also at the function at which he said the Ngong Road grant was “exciting”.

He said many road projects had been put on ice because money was not enough.

Mr Bett apologised for the slow removal of the obstacles, but said the contractors should “concentrate on the areas where the utilities have already been removed”.

The Kenya Urban Roads Authority will handle the Ngong Road project.

The rationale for the expansion of the Ngong Road project is that the population of Nairobi – vehicles and people – has increased, yet the infrastructure has remained unchanged.