President William Ruto to Launch Biggest Nairobi Road Project

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has said President William Ruto will preside over the groundbreaking of the Nairobi-Thika Expressway in the next one to two months.

Kindiki made the announcement while addressing residents in Kiambu County, saying the government was putting finishing touches on the project’s details before the ceremony could go ahead.

“Between one and two months, the president will come here for the groundbreaking of the road’s construction. We want to construct an expressway that links Thika town to Nairobi at Museum Hill. Tutajenga barabara ya ghorofa,” he said.

The proposed expressway will span about 60 kilometres and run as an elevated road above the existing carriageway, serving motorists travelling between Thika, Ruiru, Juja and Nairobi.

Kindiki compared it to the Nairobi Expressway, which runs from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to James Gichuru in Westlands, describing the new road as a similar elevated corridor ending at Museum Hill.

The deputy president acknowledged that the Thika Superhighway, built during former president Mwai Kibaki’s tenure, had not resolved traffic congestion because the number of vehicles using the route had grown significantly since its construction. The new road is designed to let motorists choose between the elevated expressway and the ground-level highway, with the aim of improving overall traffic flow.

Preliminary estimates put the construction cost at between KSh 150 billion and KSh 200 billion. The government is expected to pursue a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement to raise the financing.

The announcement comes about a month after the government commissioned a feasibility study to assess the project’s technical and financial viability.

The study was tasked with evaluating potential alignments, engineering specifications, traffic capacity, environmental and social impacts, and land acquisition requirements.

Kindiki did not give an exact date for the groundbreaking, and it was not clear whether the feasibility study had been completed. Details of the PPP partners had also not been made public at the time of publication.

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