President Kenyatta Officially launches Nairobi Expressway, Eastern Bypass

After months of a successful public trial, President Uhuru Kenyatta officially launched Kenya’s iconic Nairobi Expressway.

“Since we opened the road for public trials in April, it now takes between 15 and 24 minutes to drive from Mlolongo in Machakos County to Rironi in Kiambu County. Before the expressway, that journey would take at least three hours which is the equivalent of flying to Addis Ababa and back,” he said.

“This project has not been financed through debt or Government funds. As the first Private Partnership (PPP) road project in Kenya, Nairobi Expressway marks the Kenya Government’s pivot towards leveraging private capital to bridge our infrastructure deficit,” said the President.

The China Road and Bridge Corporation company, which designed, financed and built the expressway, will maintain and operate it during the project’s concession period, where it will recoup its investment by collecting toll charges from motorists using the expressway.

The President also commissioned the revamped Nairobi Eastern Bypass, which includes five new major vehicular crossings and six-lane dual carriageways at the busy sections of the road.

The Nairobi Eastern Bypass connects the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway with the Nairobi-Thika Highway. 

“The Government has expanded the Eastern Bypass into a four-lane dual carriageway so that it can serve as a reliable alternative link to JKIA, and to the eastern parts of Kenya. The expressway and the bypass road will address the nightmare of traffic gridlocks in Nairobi estimated by experts to cost the nation over five billion shillings annually in lost productivity time and wasted fuel,” said the President.