Murkomen says expressway charges will not be removed, recommends tolling on more roads

According to Murkomen, tolling of roads should not be perceived as a charge but instead a saving, arguing that it allows the public an advantage of saving on fuel costs and time.

Appearing for vetting before the Committee on Appointments in Parliament on Wednesday, Murkomen added that he even plans to dual most roads and shall also be tolled if deemed necessary.

"Tolling is not an extra charge, its a saving. If you look at the Expressway you'll find that it takes a shorter time to move from one end to the other meaning that you have saved time that sometimes would be 3 hours" said Murkomen.

"You realize that the cost of staying at Mombasa road for 3 hours will come to a certain figure and that will save you when it is reduced to 20 minutes but most importantly you save a lot on fuel," he added.

Murkomen further argued his sentiments using the Nairobi-Rongai road as an example, to which he suggested that if converted to a dual carriage tolled, the road will save motorists costs on fuel and other expenses.

"Calculate the time that we are saving for you, the resources you are going to spend on fuel, let us dual the roads, let's toll it and instead of paying Ksh.500 which you are wasting on fuel we charge you about Ksh.200 and you keep Ksh.300," he said.

He went on to add that the tolling policy, will be implemented on high density roads which will increase revenue for the government and allow for construction of more roads.

"We should be able to identify our high density roads and then put in place a tolling policy with a fee that is charged and commensurate to the saving that the motorist will get," he noted.

"If we raise enough revenue to maintain these infrastructures that we are going to develop we can then save from road maintenance levy and other sources of revenue to go and construct roads in other parts of the country." 

Murkomen was speaking before a 15-member-committee chaired by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula.

He asserted that his focus will be "to ensure there is equity in distribution of roads in the republic of Kenya" if officially awarded the Cabinet docket.