Barely 72 hours after the Controversial Adani deal had been canceled by the Kenyan government, it was
reported that the largest Public -Private Partnership (PPP) investment, The Nairobi expressway, that the
government had entered with China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), had made KES 1.2 billion loss
due to reduced traffic despite increasing toll charges. This situation points to a more serious question on
the viability of PPPs in Kenya and why they can’t quite seem to meet their expectations.
Accountability and transparency especially in widely publicized PPP engagements has been a huge
problem for the government. In the case of the Adani deal the final blow was a report that revealed that
the Adani deal was being implicated with corruption charges by the US justice department this showed
the level of secrecy and backroom negotiations that the Indian conglomerate was engaged in with
governments around the world. A much more open and transparent process of awarding PPPs would go
along way to help build the public trust on this kind of deals. However, these recent developments will
only increase the public distrust in such types of government investment.
In all cases in the recent past that involve PPPs, there has been one prevalent question on whether we
need the financing in the first place. First it was the expressway which had been dubbed a ‘white
elephant’ and later this year people questioned whether Adani financing was really needed to upgrade
the airport. This will always be a question that lingers on as long as private companies are involved in
public assets. The public is very weary of private interests especially coupled with distrust for the
government, a growing school of thought argues that if the government cannot afford to improve or
build public facilities it should ‘live within its means.’ In a perfect world this would be possible but the
situation that Kenya finds itself in today does not allow the government to sit by and wait for a time
when it can be able to build infrastructure independently without PPPs, this means that it is not possible
to throw out the baby with the bath water.
PPPs do work, that much we know it is a matter of how well they are implemented. They remain the
most sustainable way of infrastructure and wealth creation. The government needs to rethink how they
have been implementing these projects and educate the public on what they are and what they are not.
Additionally, the domestic private sector also needs to be more active in these types of partnerships as
domestic private companies have more public trust than international companies.
