Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
China-led AIIB lines up debut mega toll road investment in Kenya
Kenya's President William Ruto during a meeting with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Chairman Jin Liqun at the bank's headquarters in Beijing, China on September 3, 2024.
The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is lining up its first project in Kenya, just over a year after Nairobi became a fully paid-up member in efforts to the country’s bridge a Sh16.14 trillion infrastructure funding gap.
The Beijing-based AIIB has invited bids for a consultant to conduct a pre-feasibility study on upgrading the 243-kilometre Mau Summit–Malaba Highway into an access-controlled, tolled, four-lane road—marking its maiden activity in Kenya’s projects scene.
The move underscores China’s deepening footprint in Kenya’s public-private partnership (PPP) projects, following the award of the Nairobi–Mau Summit section to a consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC).
AIIB, a multilateral lender founded in 2016 and now boasting 110-member states, finances sustainable infrastructure across developing regions. Kenya formally joined AIIB in September 2024, seeking more flexible concessional long-term funding beyond traditional lenders.
“As a first step in AIIB’s support… AIIB is seeking to engage a firm (‘consultant’) on a short-term basis to help develop the foundational scope of the project and assess the PPP enabling environment in Kenya with a view to preliminarily determining the viability of implementing the project under a PPP delivery model,” the PPP Directorate says in the Terms of Reference.
The consultant’s assignment includes reviewing Kenya’s PPP legal and institutional framework, developing delivery-model options and providing a technical outline detailing route alignment, cross-sections, key performance indicators, and tolling strategy.
The study will also compare the Mau Summit–Eldoret–Malaba and Mau Summit–Kericho–Kisumu–Busia–Malaba routes to determine the most economically viable option.
Other tasks include traffic and socio-economic analysis, cost and revenue projections, creation of a high-level financial model and environmental and social screening.
Pre-feasibility priority
The consultant will further assess climate resilience, roadside services, electric vehicle charging and risk allocation, and conduct value-for-money tests, market sounding, and a roadmap towards full feasibility.
“Due to poor road quality and congestion, transit between Mombasa and the Malaba border with Uganda can exceed 100 hours, well above the government’s target of 78 hours,” the PPP Directorate notes, adding that the corridor records “high accident rates with over 4,000 annual road deaths.”
Under Kenya’s transport plan, PPPs are expected to deliver about 12 percent of total investment needs—approximately Sh1.94 trillion.
The Mau Summit–Malaba upgrade, part of the Northern Corridor and one of nine routes under the Trans-African Highway Network, will complement the upstream Nairobi–Mau Summit section, which is expected to be completed before the next elections in 2027.
According to the Kenya National Highways Authority, most of the wayleave, or right-of-way, has already been secured, but the Mau Summit–Malaba segment lacks technical, financial, and environmental assessments—making this pre-feasibility exercise a top priority.
Dr Cavince Adhere, a scholar of international relations focusing on China-Africa relations, said the speed at which AIIB has moved to finance its first Kenyan project “shows why Kenya needs this kind of multilateral lender.”
“It will help Kenya to speed up its infrastructure projects,” he said, arguing that traditional US-backed institutions have slowed progress with excessive conditionalities. “AIIB adds to the basket of partners that have supported Kenya over the past decade.”
As part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the AIIB was designed to strengthen connectivity across Asia, Europe, and Africa through road, rail and power projects.
It also serves as a counterweight to US-dominated institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, both of which resisted Beijing’s push for greater influence within their governance structures.
