Uhuru expresses satisfaction with Nairobi Expressway construction progress

President Uhuru Kenyatta made an extensive inspection tour of the 27.1-kilometre Nairobi Expressway on Thursday.

Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia and Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director-General Mohamed Badi accompanied Uhuru during his tour.

The president expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the 8-lane elevated dual carriageway, which currently stands at 93 per cent completion and its entire completion is expected in March 2022.

Uhuru officially lowered the final guarder of the Nairobi Expressway during his inspection tour of the highway.

The president thanked the contractors for their work and expressed his confidence in them completing the Expressway within the specified timeframe.

"I am confident that with the kind of speed they are moving at, the indicative date of March for completion of this road is bound to be met," the president said.

Uhuru said he will be proud to drive on the Nairobi Expressway from the Machakos turn-off to Rironi.

“I will be very proud to be able, as the minister here again has said, to drive all the way from Machakos turn-off, all the way to Rironi,” the president said.

The president also said he hoped by the time the expressway will be complete, the Rironi-Mau Summit expressway will be launched to reduce the gridlock along the corridor that has inconvenienced Kenyans and increased the cost of doing business in Kenya.

“…hopefully at that point launch the road from Rironi to Mau Summit thereby reducing the gridlock that people have experienced that has added to the cost of doing business in our country, that has added to inconvenience for our people and thereby making Kenya that much more competitive and easing the cost of living to our people,” Uhuru said.

Uhuru noted that infrastructure is key if Kenya wants to become an industrialised country.

“And that is why infrastructure is key if ultimately we want to become an industrialised nation,” he noted