Kenya's $3.5 billion road project delayed by debt concerns

Pedestrians at a zebra crossing on the busy Mombasa Road. The expressway, once completed, is expected to reduce travel time between Nairobi and Mombasa from the current 10 hours to four hours. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard.]

Kenya’s second-biggest infrastructure project since independence five decades ago, a $3.5 billion (Sh350 billion) inter-city expressway, will be delayed amid concerns by lawmakers that East Africa’s largest economy is taking on too much debt, the company building it said.

While Kenya is ramping up construction of much-needed infrastructure to underpin economic growth, the cost of the mega projects, mostly financed by Chinese loans, has stirred concern that the debt is unsustainable for the $71 billion (Sh7.1 trillion) economy.