President Ruto launches Ksh.170B Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit highway project

President William Ruto on Friday flagged off Kenya’s largest-ever Public-Private Partnership (PPP) road project, a Ksh.170 billion dual-carriageway linking Nairobi to Nakuru and Mau Summit (175 km) together with the 58-km Nairobi–Maai Mahiu–Naivasha section.

“It is an investment of over Ksh.170 billion. A living demonstration of what happens when government stops trying to do everything alone and starts doing things smarter and in partnership with the private sector,” the President declared during the launch in Kiambu County.

Describing the moment as the “dawn of a new era,” President Ruto said the country had for decades been trapped in an impossible trilemma: fund huge infrastructure from the national budget, borrow heavily, or accept stagnation.

“A single major highway can swallow nearly half of our entire annual development budget… If we waited for the national budget to release resources for this project, we would have waited a lifetime. If we borrowed, we would have added to our debts and burdened our children for generations to come,” he said.

The solution, he explained, was the innovative PPP model under which the two corridors will be designed, financed, expanded, operated and maintained entirely by private consortia, with the government providing enabling policy and oversight.

The upgraded highways will feature truck lay-bys, interchanges, pedestrian bridges, intelligent transport systems, and enhanced drainage, dramatically cutting travel time and accidents on what the President called “a vital artery linking Nairobi to Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

“For too long, this corridor carried more than it could bear. Traffic consumed our time, accidents stole our loved ones, and delays cost our economy billions. Today we say: no more,” Ruto said.

The projects are expected to create 15,000 direct jobs, mostly for youth, while prioritising local content and Kenyan contractors.

President Ruto used the occasion to unveil an ambitious nationwide road-building programme, revealing that ground will soon be broken on dual-carriageways including Machakos Junction–Mariakani, Mau Summit–Kisumu–Busia, Athi River–Namanga, and several key Nairobi corridors.

He contrasted Kenya’s post-independence record of only 22,000 km of tarmacked roads with Japan’s over one million kilometres in a similar period, saying the new PPP approach would finally close the historic infrastructure gap without piling debt or raising taxes.

To sustain the transformation, the government will establish a National Infrastructure Fund and a Sovereign Wealth Fund fed by budget allocations, privatisation proceeds, natural-resource royalties, and private capital.

“This approach will reduce our dependence on debt and build long-term national wealth for generations to come,” the President said.

Construction on the Nairobi–Nakuru–Mau Summit (A8) and Nairobi–Maai Mahiu–Naivasha roads begins immediately, with Chinese technical partners praised for bringing expertise while transferring skills to Kenyan workers.

“This is our moment to rise from the ordinary. To step away from the average. To leave mediocrity behind and to walk confidently and decisively into excellence,” President Ruto declared.