Rehabilitation of rural roads to open up agricultural areas

Three million people will have improved access to health centres and schools, as well as access to markets for their agricultural products, through the rehabilitation of several hundred kilometres of roads and tracks in six central counties of Kenya.

Context

Road rehabilitation is among the Kenyan Government’s priorities. Roads are considered an important factor of economic development: they facilitate the mobility of goods and people to markets and access to basic services. The rural road project is implemented by the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA). It includes six counties in central Kenya, an area with high agricultural potential.

Description

The goal is to rehabilitate 674 km of tracks and 152 km of roads (following the technique of “low volume sealing,” LVS), which will extend durability because of this new technology in Kenya developed by the company Colas. The project plans to mobilize local resources and labour-intensive technologies, thus creating jobs, with 30% female participation rate. It also includes a training component for consultants and local businesses provided by the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) and Kisii Training Centre (KTC).

Impacts

The impact for the 3 million inhabitants concerned includes: better access of agricultural products (tea, coffee, vegetables) to the markets, and consequently an improved quality of life of the region’s farmers, an improved access to schools and medical centres and job creation with the training of 150 local companies in labour intensive techniques. The successes recorded in phases 1 and 2 led the government to request AFD for a third phase (in progress).

Download the project sheet

29/04/2014

Project start date

21 years

Duration of funding

Gender Equality,

Infrastructure

Sectors

Nairobi

Location

Sovereign Concessional Loan

Financing tool