The Chinese Construction Company working on the 284 km Kenya-South Sudan highway has promised to complete the project in 2020.
Julius Korir, Principal Secretary in Kenya Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development in an interview with him said that out of over 20 contractors that applied for the project, three Chinese contractors won the 248 km road construction project linked to South Sudan. Also, he said that the project is 40% complete now and the ministery hope to commission the project by the year 2020.
According to Julius, the Kenya government is prioritizing the project because the road is a significant part of the East Africa Community road network which will play an essential role in boosting the intraregional trade in East Africa adding that the poor existing road presently has severely affected the trade activities between Kenya and other African nations.
He explained further that Kenya citizens are always forced to travel through Uganda to South Sudan which takes more than three days, but with the new route, traders would spend less than a day to travel through.
“South Sudan is a good partner of Kenya in many areas because the two nation has different similarities such as cultural heritage, and even some South Sudanese lived in Kenya in the time of war before her independents,” Julius said.
