Nairobi revives 78-year-old metro plan in bid to end traffic nightmare

An underground train station in Germany.[Courtsey]

What started as long term plan that was birthed 48 years ago and left to gather dust in the Archives of City Hall is now being proposed to unlock Nairobi's transport congestion mess.

After many years, the Nairobi Metropolitan Rapid Transit System is now being touted as the only formula that can revolutionise transport system and help to cut movement in the city into about 20 minutes from estates to the city centre.

The project that aims to pave way for construction of the first underground railway connecting Central Business District and Eastlands was approved by Governor Johnson Sakaja's Cabinet on July 22.

Days after its approval by the County cabinet, the NMRTS system got President Ruto's approval during a presentation of the project by officials from the county and the Ministry of Transport last week.

According to a design plan presented in State House, Phase One will connect the CBD to Eastlands through an underground metro line while extending to Westlands and Upper Hill.

 Phase Two of the project will expand the network along Ngong Road and Lang'ata Road, integrating it with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), commuter rail services and non-motorised transport into a single public transport network.

The idea dates back to 1948, when colonial planners proposed a ring railway around Nairobi and rail connections into the CBD.

The project now awaits approval from President Ruto's cabinet who will give directive and details of how the project will be financed.

"We cannot continue welcoming international investors and visitors only for them to spend two hours stuck in traffic. We will turn Nairobi into a 20-minute city, where you can get anywhere within 20 minutes," Sakaja said while appearing in Senate

According to the county government, the underground CBD section will form the core of the project, easing congestion on surface roads while integrating rail services with pedestrian walkways, non-motorised transport and transit terminals.

However, Sakaja says the county has completed all key feasibility studies with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Chinese experts.

"We are now setting up the Project Management Unit. The studies have been completed. We have already demonstrated that underground infrastructure is possible, as was done at the Haile Selassie-Uhuru Highway junction," Sakaja said.

Advisor in the Office of the President, Dr Sylvester Kasuku says the first phase metro system will comprise 10 kilometers in the CBD but will extend to 30 kilometers and beyond, covering areas like Upperhill, Kenyatta National Hospital, Parliament, City Hall, Westlands up to Muthurwa.

“Beyond Muthurwa, we move to the 20 kilometers. At the end of the day when we have served the city well with this rail system, it is going to give us a projection of spoke and wheel framework. There are those rails which will be going round and others to the centre so that it is easy to change the train,” he explained.

He said the system seeks to cover an area, which has a travel demand for about 2.5 million people and in terms of configuration of NMRTS, there are locomotives, stations, electric power, telecommunications connections to buses among others.

“We are looking forward to reducing carbon emissions by about 30 per cent, reduced fuel consumption by 70 million litres and urban regeneration in terms of organizing urban development,” said Kasuku.

“On project financials, we are looking at USD7.8 billion and it is structured according to areas to be supported for instance civil works, systems, stations and all that put together,” he added.

As far as the funding structure is concerned, he said there is the public-private partnerships, the National Infrastructure Fund, pension funds, multi-lateral financier, private equity and climate finance and carbon funding.

 "In terms of cash flow, we are seeing that after the sunk development where we have built the project up to when it starts operations, by the time it starts operations, 2032 somewhere there, even though it shows that it has a dip beneath the profitability curve, but that's the time when it has just been built. But it picks up by 2042, it starts to have returns," he explained

He added that building a new real estate underground, particularly for the underground system.

It terms of revenue generation, it is expected that owing to its demand, fares will reck in good percentage, advertising revenue, transit oriented development revenue, value revenue and climate finance and carbon revenue.

On July 31, 2026 President Ruto was briefed on the progress of the Nairobi Metropolitan Mass Rapid Transport system project at State House Nairobi by Transport ministry and Nairobi County officials led by Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir and Sakaja.

“Our plan for the Nairobi Metropolitan Mass Rapid Transport system is the perfect solution to the traffic congestion and gridlock that face our capital city and the environs,” the President said.

He said the Nairobi City County Government has given the necessary approvals for the first phase of the project, a 30km underground railway line linking densely populated parts of Eastlands and the Central Business District and comprising 25 stations.

Ruto said this will be the beginning of the establishment of a multi-modal transport system, featuring bus rapid transit and commuter rail, to move nearly 5 million city residents who make more than 12 million trips to and fro every day.