AfDB Raises Alarm Over Kenol-Marua Highway Delay

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, which earned praise from AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, 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 84 km highway is a segment of the proposed 219 km Kenol-Isiolo dual carriageway.

The project was scheduled to end by December 2024, but as of now, only 25 km, about 30% of the road, has been fully completed and handed over.

As of December 2023, the Kenol-Marua dual-carriageway project had achieved significant progress, with approximately 84% of the road completed.

At this point, about 95% of the trees to be grown had been planted. Critical facilities such as a trauma centre within the hospital and bus parks were, however, not complete.

The first 36-kilometre Kenol-Sagana highway was targeted for completion by July 2022 months ahead of the October 2023 deadline, a target not achieved.

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