Expressway real cost was Sh185.9bn, government inflated it to Sh309.9bn

On the morning after the 2016 US election, Bechtel, a leading US conglomerate in the construction business, was sing- sourced and awarded a lucrative Sh300 billion contract to construct the 485km Nairobi-Mombasa expressway.

The deal was widely condemned in the media as part kickback by the Kenya government for the US for supporting President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2017 polls.

Despite all the noise and condemnation, the government plowed ahead with the deal, which was a top priority for Uhuru when he visited Washington in August 2018.

However, the US government reportedly suspended the project in 2019 over ‘value for money’ queries and after Kenya hit its debt ceiling.

That the project was ditched over US concerns about the debt to be added to Kenya is only half of the complete truth. It has since become clear the US government ditched the project because of glaring corruption in the form of inflated costs by at least 66.7 per cent.

While initial construction costs by the Americans were estimated at $1.8 billion (Sh185.9 billion), government placed the cost at $3billion (Sh309.9 billion), which is Sh124 billion more. Only in Africa — wel l, only in countries where graft is allowed to grow with impunity — would one expect such glaring theft.

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