Infrastructure

Nigerian Firm ‘Abandons’ Nairobi Road Project

KAM is calling on the State to urgently oversee the completion of the key project.

Updated on

July 16, 2019

Ongoing road construction works — The Enterprise-Likoni road project was launched in 2013. PHOTO | FILE

A Nigerian contractor has been accused of abandoning works on a critical road project in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, leading to huge losses for manufacturers based in the area.

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) states that Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) has failed to complete work on the Enterprise-Likoni Road junction for five years, a delay that has caused firms to lose business due to the poor state of the road.

“Companies have lost about 30 percent of their business due to the bad state of Eastgate Road off Mombasa Road. Trucks now move slowly from Mlolongo to Inland Container Depot (ICD) spending more than three hours on a stretch that would usually be a 15-minute drive,” KAM chairman Sachen Gudka said.

“The trucks heading to ICD are queuing from Mlolongo towards ICD via a diversion as Eastgate is impassable.”

KAM is now calling on the government to urgently oversee the completion of the key project
to mitigate business losses.

The Enterprise-Likoni road job is a part of the Sh4.56 billion Eastern Missing Link roads project, which kicked off in 2013, involving the upgrade of 16 kilometres of roads in the Industrial Area, parts of the CBD, and Parklands.

Although RCC had never done any road construction work in Kenya, it was given the job as part of conditions by the European Union (EU), who financed the project through a grant of Sh3.4 billion – with Kenya settling the balance.

EU insisted that the contractor had to come from an EU state member or an affiliate of a European company. RCC is a subsidiary of Switzerland-headquartered SBI International Holdings AG, which has interests in construction and other sectors and has operations in different countries.

In April, the Ministry of Infrastructure said it had cancelled the contract for the 6.1km Enterprise Road stretch, a critical artery for Nairobi’s Industrial Area, following delays by RCC.

The Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura), which is overseeing the project, has previously blamed the delays on differences between it and RCC amid reports that the Nigerian company had received upfront payment for the job.