Infrastructure

Kenol-Sagana-Marua Highway Set for December Completion

The 84 km road was scheduled for completion in December 2022.

Updated on

May 28, 2024

The much-delayed completion of the Kenol-Sagana-Marua Highway is finally set for December, an official of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said.

Richard Malinga, AfDB’s Transport Engineer and Desk Manager for the project, confirmed over the weekend that the contractor has made significant progress, assuring the project will be ready by the end of the year.

“The work started in October 2020 and has advanced, so essentially, by the end of this year, it will be completed,” Malinga said in a press briefing on Sunday.

The Kenol-Marua Road, jointly funded by the AfDB and the Government of Kenya, to the tune of Sh17 billion, has been under construction since 2020.

The project involves the reconstruction of an 84km road linking Nairobi, with the commercial and agricultural towns of the Central and Upper Eastern regions.

It seeks to improve access to northern Kenya and connect neighbouring countries as part of the Great North Road/Trans African Highway.

The road construction is being executed by the Chinese firm Jiangxi Engineering Group, under the supervision of the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA).

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.

Both lots were reportedly said to be 72% and 63% complete, respectively, as of June 2022, with the completion of the highway slated for December of that year.

AfDB had praised the Kenyan government for its effort in executing the project.

The bank’s president Adenisa Akinwumi, who inspected the project in May 2022, said Kenya’s commitment to infrastructure development had made it possible for the project to run ahead of schedule without compromising quality.

“The work done on this project is tremendous, I laud the Government of Kenya for picking the best contractors who are doing high-quality jobs. This road will be a major boost to the economic growth of this country,” Dr Akinwumi said.

AfDB is funding the Kenol-Marua dual carriageway to the tune of Sh5.6 billion.

The Kenol Marua dual carriageway is a segment of the proposed 219 km Kenol-Isiolo dual carriageway – a key part of the Northern Corridor road networks.

The highway starts at the Kenol/Murang’a junction, passing through Makutano, Sagana, and Karatina, before terminating at Marua in Nyeri County.

It is part of the Great North Road that starts from Cape Town and enters Kenya through Namanga before exiting into Ethiopia at Moyale.

Jiangxi stopped work on a section of the 84km Kenol-Sagana-Marua dual carriageway due to a pending bill of Sh900 million in November 2023.

The Chinese firm claimed to have written to KeNHA 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 contracting authority to fulfill its contractual obligation,” Wang Ding Tao, the site agent, said on November 17, 2023.

“Specifically, we draw your attention to outstanding payments totalling Sh900 million from IPC21 to IPC31 inclusive of accrued interest due to overdue payments.”

Wang said that the failure to settle the bill had affected the company’s cash flow with fuel and other materials suppliers, resulting in the stoppage of deliveries.

The issue was later resolved, allowing the project to proceed.