BRT System in Kenya: A Vision Derailed by Political and Financial Crises

Kenya's ambitious plan to introduce a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Nairobi is at a critical juncture, with progress hindered by funding shortages, contractor disputes, and logistical hurdles. Despite the early promise of a streamlined transport solution in 2020, project execution, and stakeholder coordination continue to impede the much-needed decongestion of the capital.

Background:

Kenya`s capital, Nairobi, has the most notorious traffic congestion challenges. For the past 2 decades there were talks to decongest the city and the Kenya’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was a frontier.

The proposal gained serious momentum around 2016, as part of the Nairobi Integrated Urban Development Master Plan.

This led to the formation of The Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (NaMATA) in February 2017 via an executive order, to oversee the establishment of an integrated, efficient, safe, reliable and sustainable transport system within the Nairobi Metropolitan Area comprising of Nairobi City, Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Murang’a County.The zone was selected due to the high existing public transport ridership and potential to benefit the greatest number of residents.

In 2019, NaMATA issued a report with findings that over three million commuters spend an average of 57 minutes every day on short journeys and the unending traffic in Nairobi costs the East African country’s economy US$ 1bn a year in lost productivity.

Context:

NaMATA designated five major BRT lines, representing Kenya’s Big Five animals, covering key routes in the metropolitan region.

• Ndovu (line 1) : Limuru-Kangemi-CBD-Imara Daima-Athi River and Kitengela route. Symbolized by a light blue line. It was to stretch by 48.5 km with the first phase covering 18km. This section was fully funded by the Chinese Govt. and implementation still yet to take off.
• Simba (line 2) : Rongai-Bomas-Langata Road-CBD-Ruiru-Thika and Kenol route. Symbolized by an orange line. It was to stretch by 73.5 km with the first phase covering 28km. This section was fully funded by the Govt. of Kenya and currently at 70% completion. It stalled in December 2022 as a result of contractor suspending works due to non-payment. Ksh 5.6 billion allocated and Ksh 2 billion was mobilised but only ksh 900 million send to the contractor.
• Chui (line 3) : Tala-Njiru-Dandora (Juja Road)-CBD-Show Ground (Ngong Road) and Ngong route. Symbolized by a red line. It was to stretch by 81.2 km with the first phase covering 13km. This section was jointly funded by the EU and AfD and implementation still yet to take off.
• Kifaru (line 4) : East (Mama Lucy Hospital-Donholm (Jogoo Road)-CBD route) and West (CBD-T Mall-Bomas-Karen and Kikuyu route. Symbolized by a purple line. It was to stretch by 30.8 km. This is still under consideration by the PPP unit.
• Nyati (line 5) : Ridgeways (Kiambu Road)-Balozi (Allsops) and Imara Daima route. Symbolized by a light green line. It was to stretch by 23.9 km with the first phase covering 13km. This section was fully funded by the Korean Govt. and implementation still yet to take off.

The scope of all the lines included establishing dedicated bus lanes, new footbridges and stations. Line 2 (Simba) commenced in June 2020 with an allocation of ksh 5.6 billion in November 2019 and was to complete by February 2022 be made available to the general public in June 2022. The 2 phases were to run along the Thika superhighway through the Nairobi Central Business District to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KHN) done by a chinese entity, Stecol Corporation in a joint venture with SMEDI. The scope included:

• The two innermost lanes of the highway to accommodate special high-capacity buses and erecting boarding ramps to ease access to the buses, support facilities such as boarding stations and footbridges.
• A park-and-ride facility in Kasarani area to allow commuters heading to the city center to park their vehicles and transfer to the mass transport bus for the remainder of the journey.
• Construction of BRT terminal at KNH and depots at Ruiru and Kasarani, a transfer station at Nairobi Railway Station and Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) facilities along the corridor.
• Provision of automatic traffic signals for Pangani Underpass.
• In overall, it consists of 13 intermediate stations with 24 platforms.

The project is set to resume after the final dispatch of ksh 3 billion was approved by the parliament in June 2024. Timeline for completion still unclear as the CS of Transport at the time hinted that it should be ready for use in December 2024.

In 2020, the Govt. at the time secured ksh 7.6 billion ; sourced through a loan from the Korean Export-Import Bank under the Economic Development Cooperation Fund to support the project by funding its construction. It was recently confirmed in September 2024 that the deal has now been signed off and set to kickoff in January 2025. That is why it caused some uproar where Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), which is the implementing agency, said in an advertisement dated September 24 2024 that the tender is restricted to firms from Korea only and will be conducted in accordance with the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).

The funds highlighted above are purported to focus on the Outer Ring Road (Line 5) to decongest the eastern part of the city. The project duration is estimated to be 2 years coving a stretch of 10.5kms with an additional scope to include a dedicated Outer Ring Road BRT depot equivalent to a third of an acre, to support the system’s operations, complete with parking facilities, access roads, and necessary fencing.

Means of Transport:

The project will engage 100 buses with a capacity of about 160 passengers in the initial phase before scaling up operations progressively. (A case example of line 2). These buses will be run by private operators but regulated by NaMATA. Kenyans were expected to pay ksh 150 per trip for a electric/hybrid/biodiesel bus equipped with Wi-Fi and coffee shops and that the passengers will use electronic cards to pay for the services.

NaMATA indicated that it is seeking to purchase the vehicles or hold a lease of not less than 36 months and tendering done back in 2022 . Reports early in 2023 mentioned Rentco Africa as the key player in providing leasing solutions for the electric buses that are planned to operate on the BRT lines.

The company, which specializes in leasing and asset management, supports the acquisition and deployment of electric buses to ensure that the BRT system is eco-friendly and sustainable.

Additionally, in September 2023, the Govt. signed a Ksh.8.7 billion agreement with the Unites States’ Millennium Change Corporation (MCC) to finance the acquisition of electric buses for Line 2 of the Nairobi’s Bus Rapid Transit system.

Charging stations will be strategically placed along the route, promoting eco-friendly transportation options. The buses will also be equipped with advanced technology, including vehicle tracking and surveillance systems to ensure passenger safety and operational efficiency.

Stakeholder Engagement:

The Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) estimated that Kenya requires Ksh100 billion to implement BRT system to ease traffic congestion in Nairobi.

Private lenders called for favorable policy along with continuous political goodwill. The state should develop and improve institutional capacity which should be tasked to oversee the budget, planning, construction, and operations of BRT systems.

Additionally come up with a balanced participation model for risk allocation and benefit-sharing among public and private stakeholders

The world bank was concerned with the absence of an enabling legal and regulatory framework and the rate of ineffective coordination with existing public transport operators undermines commercial viability of the project.

Challenges :

As you have seen ,the full implementation of the BRT system has been very much delayed. Major issues include:

• Delayed resettlement and land acquisition which increased the risks and costs associated with building new BRT corridors.
• Lack of investor confidence as their is no support regulatory framework and hence the risk of surviving in change of regimes.
• Fare-setting conflicts where potential operators wanted to set the fares themselves and not politicians.
• Cash leakage dues to poor coordination among institutions which would cripple the financial management of BRT systems thus a challenge while sourcing for funding.
• Suboptimal coordination with existing public transport operators (matatus and minibuses) which was coupled with unregulated competition which could affect system revenue.

My Personal Conclusion:

• There should be a review of all the designs and they are now 5 years old. There has been a population change and tremendous increase in traffic.
• Transparency of these transactions are now becoming more doubtful as different vendors are awarded different lines. Why not have at least the remaining 4 under one Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement? Managing interests of several stakeholders is an uphill task unless its by design. Issues of delay and cashflows will be cleared. A PPP model would have avoided the penalties filed by contractors due to delays, amounting to ksh 754 million.

Lagos, Johannesburg, Accra, Dakar and also Dar-es-Salaam are some African cities that as of now have operational BRT systems. As a matter of fact Dar-es-salaam and Dakar started and completed after us with much less politics.

References : NaMATA Website, Business Daily, Citizen Digital & Construction Review.

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Published by CPM Mwangi.