A section of Thika Superhighway. Infrastructure development is the jewel
in former president Mwai Kibaki’s crown, with the flagship being the
Sh33 billion highway. FILE
By JOHN GACHIRI, jgachiri@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Leaders put the sector, which had been neglected in former president Moi’s era, high on the development agenda.Despite the notable efforts to spruce up infrastructure over the past decade, the long term approach since independence is quite vague with a mix of opportunities taken, lost and plenty of catching up to be done.
Infrastructure development is the jewel in the
crown of retired President Mwai Kibaki’s crown, with the flagship being
the Sh33 billion Thika Super Highway linking the capital to the
resourceful Mount Kenya region.
University of Nairobi economist Samuel Nyandemo
says that founding father Jomo Kenyatta’s rule (1963-1978) was vibrant
with growth reaching 9.6 per cent.
Under his successor, retired president Daniel arap
Moi, however, a breakdown in development of physical facilities
followed, mostly because of poor leadership.
“This was a different scenario that is clearly
demonstrated by the quality of leadership,” says Dr Nyandemo, adding
that it was an opportunity lost because Kenya had no external threats or
major calamities to distract from the development agenda.
The 1980s was an era of affordable credit that saw
Asian countries take advantage to finance massive infrastructure that
acted as a springboard for accelerated growth up.
Institute of Economic Affairs chief executive
officer Kwame Owino says there has been the right focus on roads but
rail has virtual been neglected.
Kenya was bequeathed a working railway; designed
to support an export-oriented economy and manufacturing, but like the
proverbial prodigal son the country squandered a valuable inheritance.
Latest data from the Kenya Roads Board and the
Kenya National Highways Authority shows that as at independence Kenya’s
road network stood at 45,000 kilometres out of which about 2,000 were
paved. As at 2009, 11,189 kilometres of road were paved.
Today the total road network stands at 177,800
kilometres. Despite the mix of fortunes it is not all gloomy. “There is
still much to celebrate. We have done better than most other countries
in the region,” says Dr Nyandemo.
“Kenya came second to South Africa in road quality
among the countries we studied, but only 14 per cent of roads are
paved. Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, suffers from massive congestion
too,” says a logistics report by PwC.
The Thika Superhighway, construction of a series
of bypasses, reviving of the railway and plans to upgrade the airport
all happened under retired President Kibaki’s era.
After Thursday’s Golden Jubilee, attention shifts
to other projects that are in the pipeline such as the Lamu Port and
South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project.
Infrastructure spectrum
Launched in 2012, the second transport corridor
targets the construction of railway, airports, roads, resort cities, a
pipeline and a refinery that are expected to open up northern Kenya as a
trade link to Ethiopia and South Sudan.
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