The National Treasury, through the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) Directorate, has issued a statement in response to public concerns regarding the recent traffic congestion on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway during the National Youth Service Passing Out Day on August 28, 2025.
Director-General of the PPP Directorate, Eng. Kefa Seda said the Directorate has taken note of the comments.
Eng. Seda said the Nairobi–Nakuru–Mau Summit Highway Project is a national priority.
He explained that motorists along the Northern Corridor face daily frustrations from severe congestion, high accident rates, and mounting economic losses.
Seda said routine repairs cannot address such challenges sustainably.
The project provides a durable solution through a modern dual carriageway, bypasses, service lanes, and enhanced safety measures that will ease traffic from Rironi all the way to Malaba while securing safer and faster journeys for goods and passengers.
Nairobi-Nakuru Highway Not Manipulated
However, Seda said the suggestion that traffic congestion is manipulated to justify PPP concessions is inaccurate and misleading.
He explained that PPPs in Kenya are anchored in a robust legal framework that demands rigorous technical, financial, legal, social, and environmental assessment.
Seda said PPPs are procured through competitive, transparent processes; regulated by government policy; and designed to ensure value for money.
Also Read: National Treasury Approves Two Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Road Proposals
He stated that where user charges are introduced, they are not arbitrary but carefully evaluated, government-regulated, and benchmarked against affordability.
Additionally, Seda stated that the overriding principle is to safeguard the public interest at every stage.
The inaccurate reporting that PPPs are instruments of exploitation or coercion is a misrepresentation of both the spirit.
Also Read: Ruto Reveals How French Company Was Chased From Nairobi-Nakuru Project
Roles of PPPs in Kenya
He emphasized that all PPP frameworks are built on transparency, accountability, value for money, risk sharing, and long-term sustainability.
Seda said the values have been consistently upheld to ensure that PPPs do not burden citizens but instead deliver infrastructure at the scale and speed required to support national development.
He stressed that portraying PPPs as profiteering schemes overlooks the safeguards in place and undermines a framework internationally recognized as vital for accelerating infrastructure delivery in developing economies.
While the concerns of motorists about traffic congestion are legitimate, they also highlight the very reason why structured, long-term interventions such as the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Highway have been prioritised. Such projects and others the PPP Directorate is considering at various stages are a direct response to the lived reality of Kenyans and the demands of a modern, growing economy.
The PPP Directorate operates under the National Treasury and is tasked with promoting and facilitating the implementation of PPP projects.
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As much as Kenyans want the dualling of the highway to be facilitated, what they don’t know is that the devil lies in the humongous toll fee calculations motorists will be subjected to in that PPP arrangement that will undoubtedly render the use of the highway grossly prohibitive.
Absolutely ????