{President Uhuru Kenyatta has lined up mega infrastructure projects to be executed in partnership with private investors setting consumers up for payment of user fees for many of the public services currently accessible for free.}
Motorists will be charged road tolls, tenants will pay higher rents for public housing and commuters will pay higher fees on the trains if private money is used to build or upgrade the infrastructure seen as Mr Kenyatta’s legacy projects.
Private investors in public projects have to recoup their money – usually through pay-for-use arrangements such as road tolls.
Under the Public and Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, investors develop the infrastructure and are given a defined period to operate it for purposes of recouping their investment before ultimately handing over the asset to the government.
The arrangement commonly known as Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) has been used in many parts of the world – including South Africa, India and France to build national infrastructure.
“We have to embrace tolling. Look how far it has taken China and India,” Transport secretary Michael Kamau, in whose docket most of the projects fall, said.
The list of approved projects that are open to tolling include construction of a second bridge at Nyali and the building of a dual carriage superhighway between Mombasa and Nairobi and on to Nakuru.
Investors who put their money into Nairobi’s planned 100 kilometre commuter rail are expected to recoup their investment by charging users market rate fees while those who invest in Kenyatta University hostels will recover their money from the accommodation fees paid by students.
Other projects include the construction of 60,000 low cost housing units and 66,000 units for the police.
Business Daily
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