The nominee for Roads, Transport and Public Works Cabinet Secretary’s position Kipchumba Murkomen has said the charges on the Nairobi Expressway shall not be scrapped as mooted by a section of Nairobi motorists.

Murkomen said that on Wednesday when the National Assembly Commission on Appointments vetted him for the CS position President William Ruto nominated him for.

He said the toll payment on the Nairobi should not be taken as a charge rather some form of saving since it offers an advantage of saving on fuel costs and time.

"Tolling is not an extra charge, it's a saving. If you look at the Expressway, you'll find that it takes a shorter time to move from one end to the other meaning that you have saved time that sometimes would be 3 hours" said Murkomen.

"You realise that the cost of staying at Mombasa road for 3 hours will come to a certain figure and that will save you when it is reduced to 20 minutes but most importantly you save a lot on fuel.” 

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If appointed the Roads, Transport and Public Works, Murkomen said he intends to make most roads dual carriageways which may also be tolled should the need arise.

Murkomen cited the Nairobi-Ongata Rongai road as one that needs to be expanded into a tolled dual carriageway because it would in effect save motorists a lot of time and fuel.

He suggested that the tolling be implemented on high-traffic roads because it will increase the revenue for the government which it may use to develop other road networks.

"We should be able to identify our high-density roads and then put in place a tolling policy with a fee that is charged and commensurate to the saving that the motorist will get," Murkomen said.

"If we raise enough revenue to maintain these infrastructures that we are going to develop, we can then save from road maintenance levy and other sources of revenue to construct roads in other parts of the country." 

Murkomen also pledged to ensure equity in the distribution of roads in the country if he becomes the CS.