Infrastructure

Eastern Bypass Nairobi

The road is one of Kenya’s Vision 2030 infrastructure projects.

Updated on

September 15, 2023

Ongoing repair of a dilapidated road. PHOTO | FILE

The Eastern Bypass, which was built a few years ago, is one of the Kenyan government’s key infrastructure projects aimed at making the country a regional commercial hub.

The 39-km bypass starts on the Ruiru-Kiambu road and then crosses the Northern Bypass and the Ruiru railway line into Thika Road, after which it crosses Kamiti, Gathara-ini and Nairobi rivers into Ruai.

The single lane carriageway then crosses Kangundo Road before proceeding to Mombasa Road via Embakasi Garrison and the North Airport Road.

Sh8.5 billion

The Eastern Bypass together with the Northern Bypass were initially expected to cost Sh8.5 billion, but the projects overshot the budget significantly due to land acquisition costs.

The government of Kenya was to meet 15% of the project (Sh1.2 billion) while the Chinese government was to fund the remaining 85% (Sh7.3 billion).

The project included construction of flyovers, interchanges, standard pipe culverts and box culverts. China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) was the main contractor for the project.

In September 2017, a project to upgrade the Eastern Bypass into a dual carriageway appeared imminent after Transport secretary James Macharia said his ministry was preparing MOUs that would be shared with contractors to help unlock financing for the project.

Arrange financing

“Dualling should have been done from day one. They should not have done that road without dualling it,” Mr Macharia said. “We want to accelerate the dualling and have it done as soon as we arrange financing and that’s why we’re processing these memoranda of understanding.”

The documents, he said, would provide the roadmap for the design and costing of the multi-billion-shilling project that has a two-year construction timeline.

Not much has happened since.

However, Treasury documents tabled in Parliament this week have revealed that Kenya has secured a Sh2 billion loan for the project from an undisclosed financier.

The loan, signed on September 28, 2021, is yet to be released to the government.

The Eastern Bypass dualling project was among 11 mega projects that Kenya showcased to investors during the Belt and Road forum that was held in Beijing, China, in May 2017.