Infrastructure
AfDB Raises Alarm Over Kenol-Marua Highway Delay
The African Development Bank says the project risks time and cost overruns.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has warned that a persistent delay in compensating stakeholders for the Kenol-Marua dual-carriageway project exposes the venture to serious risks of time and cost overruns.
AfDB, the key financier of the project, says delays by the government to disburse payments to project-affected individuals and contractors could cause the Sh16 billion project to overstretch its planned schedule and budget.
“The delays in land acquisition for right of way have impacted the implementation of works in certain sections. This is also potentially impacting the cost of the works,” AfDB says in its latest implementation progress report for the project.
Construction of the Kenol-Sagana-Marua highway, which is jointly funded by the AfDB and the Government of Kenya, has been under construction since 2020.
The project had registered tremendous progress, earning itself praise from AfDB President Adenisa Akinwumi, who inspected the ongoing works in May 2022.
However, in November 2023, the Chinese contractor Jiangxi Engineering Group stopped work on a section of the road due to a pending bill of Sh900 million.
The company claims to have written to the Kenya National Highway Authority requesting the settlement of the outstanding bill but received no response.
“The decision to suspend the works is regrettable but stems from the repeated failure of the employer to fulfil its contractual obligation,” Wang Ding Tao, the company’s site agent, wrote.
RELATED: Chinese Firm Stops Work on Kenol-Marua Highway
Jiangxi Engineering Group is undertaking the project in two lots: the first one (48km) runs from Kenol town in Murang’a County to Sagana in Kirinyaga County, while lot 2 stretches from Sagana to Marua in Nyeri County.
The Kenol-Marua dual-carriageway starts at the Kenol/Murang’a junction passing through Makutano, Sagana, and Karatina, before ending at Marua in Nyeri.
The 84km highway is a segment of the proposed 219km Kenol-Isiolo dual carriageway – a key part of the Northern Corridor road networks.
The project was scheduled for completion by December 2024, but as of now, only 25km, about 30% of the road, has been fully completed and handed over.
As of December 2023, the Kenol-Marua dual-carriageway project achieved significant progress, with approximately 84% of the road completed.
Additionally, 95% of the required trees have been planted.
However, critical aspects of the project, including the construction of social facilities such as a hospital trauma centre and bus parks, remain incomplete.
The initial phase, which covered the 36-km Kenol-Sagana highway, had been projected to end by July 2022, months ahead of the October 2023 deadline, but it remains incomplete due to the delays in compensating affected people.
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