(Tue special, 4-5) Smooth rides for motorists as Rironi-Naivasha road 90% complete

Isaac Abida has taken a short break in Nakuru on a drizzly Monday afternoon before resuming his journey to Port Victoria in Busia county.

He is a bus driver with 16 years experience. “Our main challenge on this road has been heavy traffic but nowadays it moves. We know once construction is completed, we will have a good road with smooth traffic flow,” he tells the Star.

“Over the years, we have spent nights stuck on this road, especially during the Christmas season. There are many vehicles and the road is narrow. Now, we are sure this coming holiday season, even if the construction is not complete, we can move faster. As a regular user of this road, I am very happy.”

The expansion and modernisation of the Rironi-Mau Summit road is one of the priority infrastructure projects of the Kenya Kwanza administration under President William Ruto’s Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta).

President Ruto launched the construction on November 28, 2025, and the work is scheduled to be completed in June next year.

Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) engineers estimate that the construction is now at 90 per cent.

It will be a game changer for travellers to and from Central Kenya, Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza regions.

“I have been a driver on this road for about three-and-half years,” said trucker Kilonzo Musyoka as he headed to Kampala from Mombasa.

“I have been held in traffic many times for several hours. When even a minor accident occurs or rain falls, a traffic snarl-up starts.”

Musyoka said sometimes he has been stuck in traffic for more than five hours. “Once the construction is completed, that problem will be solved.”

The contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation, has done most of the work. “We are now beyond 90 per cent, meaning most of the earthwork has been done,” KeNHA resident engineer Kibet Terigin said.

By Christmas, most sections of the road will be officially open to traffic, he added.

The works involve the upgrade, dualling and expansion of the Rironi-Nakuru-Mau Summit (A8) section and the Rironi–Maai Mahiu–Naivasha (A8 South) under a public-private partnership model.

The total project covers 233km. The main A8 section is part of the Trans-African Highway (Northern Corridor) that connects Kenya to Uganda.

The route experiences heavy traffic due to the massive movement of goods and people, playing a vital role in trade and regional connectivity within East Africa.

The road traverses the counties of Kiambu, Nyandarua and Nakuru.

The existing stretch has been marred by several constraints including congestion (especially during festive periods and holidays) and safety concerns arising from design issues, driver behaviour and climatic conditions.

“Our biggest problem on this road all the way to Malaba has been capacity constraint. And this is seen every time we have festivities or when there's a large number of people travelling to Western Kenya,” Eng Kibet said.

Sometimes travelers sleep on the road for up to 24 hours because of the gridlocks, he added.

“As His Excellency the President said, the issue of people sleeping on the road will be a thing of the past. The way the project is structured is that we will increase capacity and under the framework for PPP, the management and maintenance will be through technology never seen in this country before.”

Eng Kibet said the other major gain is road safety. “If you look at statistics, this is the road that bears the highest number of accidents and fatalities. Because we are going to physically separate traffic moving in opposite directions, we expect a substantial decline in the people who lose their lives on the road.”

Eng Anthony Omach is responsible for the section between Gilgil to Mau Summit. He said most of the stretch from Gilgil to Nakuru has been done.

“We intend to start doing pavement works next month. We expect to move faster because most of the earthworks have been done now in this section,” he said.

“We have more or less completed the drainage works and done all the culverts: the box culverts, the cross culverts. More than 90 per cent of it is done.”

Eng Omach said no residents along the road were displaced. “We have limited the works to the existing road reserve as much as possible. So, the uptake of new land is extremely minimal.”

KeNHA only acquired more land for special features such as interchanges. “Where we are doing the tollbooths, because this is a toll road, those ones require more land. But for the main works, we are not acquiring any land,” Omach said.

Besides the ease of movement, the expanded road has created massive direct jobs and boosted economic activities.

“Nakuru is already experiencing an economic boom,” Eng Kibet said. “Kiambu county is a major beneficiary right now. Narok county is a beneficiary and Nyandarua county. Kericho and Baringo, where we source material for construction, are direct beneficiaries.”

Construction is labour-intensive. “We have thousands of different types of labour, skilled and unskilled, and the technical services provided by our engineers and all trades that are responsible during construction,” Kibet said.

Concerns have been raised about additional costs to motorists, who will pay to use the highway. Kibet said the new road will save travellers money. “Look at the saving in terms of travel time. It's a direct saving on fuel and maintenance costs, and our calculation shows that it is higher than what people will actually pay,” he said.

But the construction has disrupted business activities along the road.

Rahab Wambui is a roadside curios seller for over 10 years at Viewpoint, overlooking the Great Rift Valley. “We have been evicted and right now we have nowhere to go. See, my makeshift stall is falling apart,” she said.

“We don’t reject development. We have this road under construction and affordable houses down there. We are not opposed to that, but we have really been affected.”

Wambui said about 500 fellow traders were left without a place to operate from. She asked the government to allocate them an alternative space at the nearby forest.

“Some traders have totally nowhere to operate from, and it is from here they have been getting unga, shelter and school fees for their children.”

Rebecca Njeri, a vegetable seller in Kikopey since 2012, said business was good in the past but construction works drove away some of her customers.

“We depend on motorists on this road but since the start of construction, many of them diverted to other routes, like Narok. Some of my fellow traders closed down their businesses and have not returned,” she said. “We were about 30 traders here, now only nine remain.”