KENYA GOVERNMENT SEEKING TO LOWER COST OF PROJECTS

Kenya Government looking to lower costs of crucial projects

The government of Kenya through the Kenya Roads Boards (KRB), is in search of researchers, contractors and suppliers who will help to reduce its budgetary costs by at least 25%. Reducing the costs will enable them achieve more developmental projects.

Chair person of KRB, Ms Rita Kavashe, said the key areas under consideration include; transport and housing infrastructure and research.

Roads contribute about 60% of Kenya’s GDP, however its contribution is declining as other sectors (e.g ICT) contribution are increasing. The Kenya Government implements projects based on demand, and the demand for transport is growing faster than supply. Statistics show that there is registration of about 200,000 vehicles yearly.

This stat shows an 8% growth rate, while construction of new roads and rehabilitating of existing ones is about 1,300 km yearly (1% of the existing 161,000 km existing road network).

The deficiency in transport infrastructure is due to high costs of carrying out these projects. Hence the need for reduction of these costs to an affordable level.

Considering all these KRB will be collaborating with cement manufacturers and promoters of proprietary products in researching ways of providing quality, low-cost hydraulic road binders (HRBs) to build low-volume roads.

Also the ministry will continually review manuals and standards to assimilate growing technological trends.