Nairobi, Kenya — Irene Wairimu has been selling cereals for the past 10 years along the 84-km Kenol-Sagana-Marua Highway, which links Nairobi, Kenya's capital, to the agriculturally rich central region. Before its upgrade to a four-lane dual highway, it was a congested two-lane road that travelers often avoided.
Since the new road opened, vehicle traffic has more than doubled, bringing more customers to her roadside stall brimming with agricultural produce from nearby farms, Wairimu said. "I am receiving more customers because the road was widened, allowing more people to reach my stall," she said.
Wairimu is among hundreds of vendors who sell various agricultural products along the Kenol-Sagana-Marua Highway. The road improvement project, which began in 2020, is being undertaken by Jiangxi Transportation Engineering Group and China Wu Yi Company. It aims to link Nairobi to the agriculturally rich central regions and Moyale town, near the Ethiopian border.
The highway passes through the counties of Muranga, Kirinyaga and Nyeri, easing traffic congestion and enhancing Kenya's status as a regional transport and logistics hub. The new road also provides people traveling from Nairobi to the Mount Kenya tourism circuit with uninterrupted dual carriageway, significantly enhancing road safety.
Cleophas Makau, deputy director of the Kenya National Highways Authority and the project's coordinator, said the four-lane highway is set to be completed by August. Makau noted that the business community along the highway is already benefiting, with travel time between Sagana town and Nairobi reduced from an average of two hours to about one hour.
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The road is the main artery for transporting agricultural produce, the backbone of central Kenya's economy. Food items, including bananas, rice and tomatoes, are transported from farms to feed the growing population in Nairobi and other markets in cities like Mombasa, Eldoret, Nakuru and Kisumu. It is also the main transport corridor for tea and coffee, two of Kenya's primary cash crops, which are mainly exported.
AbdiAziz Mohamed, human resource manager at a local avocado products company, said that since the road was expanded, farmers from central Kenya can easily access their facility and deliver their commodities. As a result, the company has expanded its capacity and can now process about 70 tons of avocados daily.
Gladys Wairimu, another trader of agricultural produce along the road, also benefits from the project. She said that her business has picked up since the road was expanded from a single lane to a double lane.
The road project is a key artery in Kenya, forming part of the Trans-African Highway that runs from Egypt to South Africa, said Richard Malinga, principal transport engineer at the African Development Bank that financed the project. ∎
