Nairobi — Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli has launched a scathing attack on opponents of the proposed National Infrastructure Fund, accusing them of sabotaging a critical national intervention Kenya urgently needs to prevent avoidable road tragedies.
Speaking in the wake of the death of former Lugari MP and veteran politician Cyrus Jirongo, Atwoli said resistance to the Fund was not only misguided but dangerous at a time when poor infrastructure continues to claim lives and disrupt the economy.
"As we call upon Kenyans to embrace the National Infrastructure Fund to address avoidable accidents such as this, it is unfortunate that some stupid and primitive individuals are opposed to the initiative and are even planning to challenge it in court," Atwoli said.
"Kenya urgently needs the National Infrastructure Fund to prevent such avoidable tragedies because as we speak, Nairobi has been cut off from several parts of western Kenya due to an accident of this nature, that could have been prevented with proper infrastructure investment."
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Atwoli was referring to the fatal road crash that claimed Jirongo's life on December 13 along the Naivasha-Nakuru highway, once again spotlighting safety concerns on some of the country's busiest transport corridors.
According to preliminary police reports, Jirongo was driving toward Nairobi from Nakuru when his vehicle collided head-on with a bus near the Karai area in Naivasha on Saturday morning.
The impact extensively damaged his car, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Several passengers in the bus sustained injuries and were rushed to hospitals in Naivasha for treatment.
Jirongo, 64, was a towering figure in Kenya's political landscape for more than three decades.
He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as the leader of the influential Youth for KANU '92 lobby group, later served as Lugari MP, and contested the presidency in 2017. Until his death, he remained an outspoken voice in national political debates.
For Atwoli, the tragedy underscores what he describes as the high cost of delayed or inadequate investment in roads and transport safety.
Atwoli's remarks come days after the Cabinet approved the establishment of the National Infrastructure Fund and a Sovereign Wealth Fund, two flagship vehicles at the heart of Kenya's ambitious Sh5 trillion long-term economic transformation agenda.
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Approved as a limited liability company, the National Infrastructure Fund is designed to align government financial resources with national development priorities while reducing reliance on excessive borrowing and taxation.
The Fund will mobilise domestic resources, monetise mature public assets, democratise ownership through capital markets, and deploy national savings to attract large-scale private capital.
Under the framework, all proceeds from privatisation will be ring-fenced strictly for public infrastructure projects with long-term economic value.
The government projects that every shilling invested through the Fund could crowd in up to Sh10 from long-term investors, including pension funds, sovereign partners, private equity firms and development finance institutions.
Together with the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the infrastructure vehicle is expected to finance transformative projects across key sectors.
In transport and logistics, the plan includes dualling 2,500 kilometres of highways, tarmacking 28,000 kilometres of roads, extending the Standard Gauge Railway to Malaba, expanding oil pipelines, and modernising airports and the ports of Mombasa and Lamu.
The broader transformation agenda also targets food security through the construction of mega, mini and micro dams to expand irrigation, as well as energy generation, with plans to add at least 10,000 megawatts over the next seven years from geothermal, hydro, solar, wind and nuclear sources.
