Motorists to start paying toll charges on Kenyan roads

According to a report that appeared in the Business Daily on Monday, parliament has directed the Treasury, the Ministry of Transport and the Attorney-General to urgently table a Bill that will guide the imposition of toll fees on major national roads and establishment of a toll fund.

“MPs want to approve the toll fee legislation ahead of Parliament’s long recess in May, setting the stage for the introduction of the fees in the new financial year starting July 1. The list of highways, where motorists may soon start paying includes Nairobi-Nakuru, Nairobi-Mombasa, Nairobi-Thika and Nairobi’s Southern Bypass,” says the report.

“This committee is giving you only two weeks and we expect that you will table the Bill on March 12 when we meet,” David Pkosing, chairman of the National Assembly’s Transport committee directed Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani and his Transport counterpart, James Macharia.

The report by Business Daily further says as follows:

If implemented, the new charges, which amount to a new layer of taxation, will see motorists pay toll charges on top of the fuel levy despite the fact that roads are funded using tax revenues. The roads maintenance and fuel levies were also introduced in the place of toll fees.

Roads tolls were initially introduced in Kenya in the late 1980s, but were scrapped in the mid-1990s in favour of the Roads Maintenance Levy to eliminate corruption at local toll stations. The levy is currently charged at Sh. 18 per litre for petrol and diesel.