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{
    "id": 84492,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/84492/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 181,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": "To address this problem, the Government is carrying out selective upgrading of heavily trafficked trunk and primary roads. We are also constructing important bypasses and missing link roads around the CBDA. Additionally, the Government is steadily passing plans for the implementation of the bus and rapid transit traffic transportation system, including a light rail system within the city. The upgrading of the Nairobi-Thika Road, which carries the North-South bound traffic is on. Upgrading of the 53 kilometre road will allow 80 to 100 kilometre per hour design speeds. It is proceeding in three contracts as follows. There is the 12.4-kilometre stretch, which starts from Museum Hill Roundabout and part of Landhies Road and Pangani Road. The second one is the 14.1-kilometre stretch, from Muthaiga Roundabout to Kenyatta University-Ruiru stretch. Lastly is the 23-kilometre, Ruiru-Thika stretch. Grade separated junctions, overpasses and inter-changes will be provided at various locations, where the road crosses busy streets in order to enhance traffic capacity. Several underpasses as well as approximately 75 kilometres of slip roads and service roads will also be constructed to enhance capacity. The total cost estimate for the three lots co-financed through support of the African Development Bank (ADB) amounts to Kshs26.2 billion. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the work progress on this road is satisfactory. When completed in 2012, the highway will comprise between four and eight lanes, with frontage roads and access control, which will minimise conflicts and enhance road safety. Airport North Road and Outering Road have been designed for upgrading to a four lane free-flow dual carriage way all the way up to Thika Road. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the overall investment required to rehabilitate and maintain roads to required standards is enormous. That is why we decided that public funding alone was completely inadequate in order to be able to respond to the infrastructure needs of the country. Sometimes back, the Government requested the World Bank to fund a study on concession in our country. That study established that concessioning is actually viable in Kenya. However, convention tolling is only viable on the Northern Corridor – that is the road which runs from the Port of Mombasa, through Nairobi, to our border with Uganda. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government, therefore, embarked on the process of creating a fast-toll road in our country’s history. This is best run from Rironi, in Kikuyu, through Dagoreti and Karen, joining Mombasa Road in order to divert the traffic coming from Mombasa through what we call the “Southern Bypass”. There is also the Eastern Bypass and the Northern Bypass. The Northern Corridor should be improved in three phases as follows:- (i) from Mombasa to Machakos Turn-off, covering 466 kilometres; (ii) the 106-kilometre road, which I have already mentioned, running from Machakos Turn-off to Rironi, and Nairobi Southern Bypass; and, (iii) the 693-kilometre road stretching from Rironi to Mau Summitt, Mau Summit to Malaba, and Mau Summit, through Kisumu, to Busia. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the first stage in the improvement of the Northern Corridor should be number two, which is the most viable and will involve the construction of a five-kilometre six-lane elevated road above Uhuru Highway, with under-changes and overpasses at Lusaka Road, Bunyala Road, Haile Selassie Avenue, Kenyatta Avenue and Ring Road, Westlands. This means that when you are coming from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) into the city – the road is going to be widened to four lanes on both sides; when you reach Nyayo Stadium, you will have a flyover which will run all the way through Uhuru Highway to Westlands Roundabout. This means traffic coming from Westlands towards JKIA will not have to be part of the traffic congestion in the city. The Nairobi Southern Bypass was designed in the early 1990s, through technical co-operation with the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA)."
}