Nairobi Express Way hasn’t increased by 50%, Murkomen U-turn.

SUMMARY

Nairobi Express Way hasn’t increased by 50%, Murkomen U-turn.

The Road CS Hon Kipchumba Murkomen has explained the rationale behind the increase in price of the Nairobi Express Way pricing.

The CS faulted MP for Alego Usanga’s claims that the prices had been increased by 50%.

“Bwana waziri @kipmurkomen ,what is your justification for raising express way rates by 50%? I now believe this regime is satanic.” Hon Sam Atandi, who is the MP for Alego had tweeted.

In a statement on X platform formerly twitter, Murkomen Murkomen detailed that “the increase is not 50%.”

The CS detailed that “if you take the maximum increase which is from 360 to 500 you will get a difference of 140 Shillings.”
And that “if you divide Kshs 140 by Kshs 360 and multiply by 100 you will get 38.89%.”

Depreciating Shilling:

Murkomen went further to explain how the value of Kenyan shilling has depreciated against the dollar.

According to Murkomen, “the last adjustment was done when one dollar was equal to Kshs 113.14.

Now that the dollar “is Ksh 157 and using the same method I.e 157 minus 113 which is equal to 44. Divide 44 by 113 and multiply by 100 and you will get 38.9 %. So the increase is proportional.”

Toll Adjustment Based on Project Agreement.

Murkomen noted that the adjustment was done based on the Project Agreement taking into account the depreciation of the Kenya Shilling to the United States dollar since the time of gazettement of the Toll Rates in April 2022.

He said the formula for computing the new rates is already embedded in the agreement taking into account the loan facility by the investor which, he claims, was borrowed using USD ( as a banker you will understand more)

“The Cabinet Secretary and the government of Kenya have no discretion but to follow the agreement as established in 2021.” Said Murkomen.

Murkomen Appreciate Gov’t.

Murkomen further appreciated the Gov’t about express way saying that it did not give traffic volume guarantee “otherwise the taxpayer would now be paying a lot from the interest accrued and inflation plus the difference unmet by less traffic flow.”

Adding: “Second, the consumer has an alternative route which is not tolled.”

Here is the new rate on Nairobi Express Way.