Motorists Association says KeNHA toll roads not sincere

Motorists Association of Kenya (MAK) says it is opposed to Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) ill-advised plan to charge vehicle owners 7,290 shillings along Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit road.

Alex Lumwamu, Executive Officer for MAK says the last time KeNHA wanted to sneak in the plan 700,000 motorists signed a petition against it.

“We condemn the obsession with KeNHA to resurrect this dead idea every two years for over a decade now which has compromised the normal upgrading. The reason the association opposes this every time since ex CS Eng. Kamau was in office is the same. You cannot erect a toll road on an existing public road. “He said.

Lumwamu said a toll can only be built separately on land acquired from private ownership.

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“Even in the very few countries with toll roads, there has to be a public toll-free road alternative. Toll roads are outmoded and no longer popular anywhere in the world. The whole of the United Kingdom has only one toll road known as M16. Again where toll roads are there are no fuel levies. “He added.

He noted that Kenya used to have toll roads but they were replaced by Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) which has been increased from sh. 0.6 upon inception to sh 6 in 2016.

“This has since been increased to sh 18 in a record 2 years. These colossal amounts are riddled with wastage and pilfering to the extent that roads are not maintained as required. When Kenya Roads Board asked for the treble increase they promised that bad roads will be a thing of the past. This, however, is not the case. Introducing a charge on some roads would be discriminating to some users and a gross violation of the 2010 Constitution which upheld the freedom of movement.” He noted.

Executive Officer added that the idea of toll roads was in the 18th century when governments gave concessions to private people to do roads or bridges where there were none, then operate and transfer back to government after paying themselves.

He said this can no longer be the case in the 21st century where building the roads is quite easy due to a large amount of taxes paid by vehicle owners in compounded taxes.

He continued to say that motorists are the top taxpayers and the most overburdened when it comes to getting value for their money and reintroducing toll booths would break the camel’s back since this will be tantamount to double taxation.

The association wants the Highway Authority to start constructing the long-overdue dual roads.

“We know the construction has been delayed all this time waiting for this selfish idea of privatizing our public highways. This delay scheme is criminal. The PPPs is a wider scheme to take away a public road into the hands of private profiteering firms appointed by the mandarins holding the public office. So far PPPs have been conduits of huge amounts of public money.” Said Lumwamu

He said the model is responsible for wastage of the huge allocations to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

“At Motorists Association we are opposed to this evil scheme. To prove our point, the funds being wasted on the James Gichuru Rironi section is enough to dualize the stretch from Limuru to Nakuru. Doing a dual carriageway is very simple. Motorists pay the government a lot of money. Half the cost of a litre of fuel is tax, almost half of vehicle import is excise duty and registration not to mention compounded licenses revenues and a horde of other taxes. Whoever is misadvising the highway authority need to stop since this is the most irresponsible idea ever and we as vehicle owners cannot allow Kenha to take us for granted. The Transport Ministry has a case to answer on wastage of public funds and misplaced priorities in the upgrading of roads.” He said.

He said they think the timing of the announcement by the director-general is political, aimed at creating discontent among the big number of road users just like the NTSA private car inspection which is giving the government a bad name.