The PPP Directorate has taken note of public statements in regard to the traffic congestion recently experienced on the Nairobi–Nakuru highway during the National Youth Service Passing Out Day on 28th August 2025.
However, the suggestion that traffic congestion is manipulated to justify PPP concessions is inaccurate and misleading. PPPs in Kenya are anchored in a robust legal framework that demands rigorous technical, financial, legal, social, and environmental assessment. They are procured through competitive, transparent processes; regulated by government policy; and designed to ensure value for money. Where user charges are introduced, they are not arbitrary but carefully evaluated, government-regulated, and benchmarked against affordability. At every stage, the overriding principle is to safeguard public interest.
The inaccurate reporting that PPPs are instruments of exploitation or coercion is a misrepresentation of both the spirit and the practice of PPPs. The Nairobi- Nakuru–Mau Summit Highway Project is a national priority precisely because of the frustrations motorists face daily along the Northern Corridor, from severe congestion, high accident rates, and mounting economic losses. Routine repairs cannot address these 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.
Equally, the values underpinning PPPs deserve to be reiterated. All PPP frameworks are built on transparency, accountability, value-for-money, risk sharing, and long-term sustainability. These 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.
Mischaracterising PPPs as profiteering schemes ignores the safeguards in place and undermines a framework that has been internationally recognised as critical 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 values dialogue with stakeholders and invites engagement grounded in facts on how PPP projects are structured and governed. Our mandate is clear and our commitment unwavering: to structure and regulate infrastructure partnerships that mobilise Private capital investment, reduce fiscal pressure on the exchequer, and deliver public services in ways that are sustainable, transparent, and beneficial to citizens.
Eng. Kefa Seda Director-General
Public Private Partnerships Directorate, The National Treasury.
