President Uhuru Kenyatta is neither anticipating the death of commuter bus service nor truck cargo haulage.
In his re-election manifesto, Mr Kenyatta is promising to expand the Mombasa-Nairobi highway into a six-lane corridor.
The
Jubilee manifesto states: “In the next five years, we will construct
the Mombasa-Nairobi six-lane highway toll road which together with the
SGR (standard gauge railway) will transform the 450 kilometres between
the two cities into one large and vibrant economic zone.”
That
implies a robust road transport alongside an efficient rail transport.
A six-lane corridor assigns specific lanes to private cars, buses and
trucks.
In other words, the Jubilee administration is
imagining an integrated system where speed, convenience, and cost
interact to determine the choice of transport means, whether by train,
bus, private car or truck.
As previously marketed, an efficient train was supposed to get most of the trucks and buses out of the route.
Buses and trucks have thrived due to the inefficiency
of the metre-gauge trains that take nearly 10 hours to cover the
450-kilometre journey.
So far, the SGR train has lived up to its promise on speed, convenience and price compared to trucks and buses.
But
it has failed the environment test after trains turned out to be diesel
locomotives as opposed to electric ones previously promised
Going
by its manifesto, the Jubilee administration advisers do not appear to
share the view of a number of market watchers who argue that road
transport operators should relocate to areas that have not been reached
by the SGR. President Kenyatta is promising to complete Nairobi-Naivasha
SGR in the next five years adding that by 2022, Kenya will have an
integrated transport network.
According to the
manifesto, the system will link production centres in the Northern
Corridor, the Central Corridor and the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia
Transport Corridor with affordable transport, logistics, energy and
utility systems.
Before that, the President has set
himself an immediate task of constructing a rail link from Lamu to
Miritini and a road from Lamu to Isiolo.
He has also pledged to complete the development of the remaining 29 berths in Lamu port.
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