A roughly 27 km toll road from Mlolongo to Westlands, opened on 14 May 2022 and running elevated above Mombasa Road and Uhuru Highway. The owner is the Kenya National Highways Authority, a national agency — Nairobi City County did not build it. Moja Expressway Company, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation, financed construction and holds a 27-year concession to collect the tolls before handing the road back. The tolling is electronic but not free-flow: drivers stop at barriers and pay with an RFID on-board unit (KSh 3,000 to fit in 2022), a prepaid card, a bank card, mobile money over USSD, or cash. There is no number-plate billing. Rates are gazetted by segment and vehicle class, not by time of day, so this prices a new road rather than a congested area. Use grew from over 31,000 vehicles on some days during the two-week trial to 67,298 a day in the second half of 2024 — and the concession still lost money, KSh 7.16 billion of tolls against KSh 9 billion of costs. Nothing is published openly: no traffic feed, no revenue data, no dataset. Every number here comes from the Treasury, a minister, or press reporting of them, and no Auditor-General report on the concession was found.
Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia reported over 31,000 vehicles on some days during the two-week trial after the 14 May 2022 opening. For July to December 2024, National Treasury disclosures reported by Business Daily (22 October 2025) give 67,298 vehicles a day, 12.5 million vehicles over the half-year, KSh 7.16 billion of toll income against KSh 9 billion of costs including loan repayment, and a net loss of KSh 1.84 billion, widened from KSh 1.2 billion in the year to June 2024. Tolls are dollar-linked, so exchange-rate risk sits with motorists rather than the concessionaire; KeNHA recommended a rate cut on improved inflation and shilling figures and Roads Principal Secretary Joseph Mbugua declined it. Toll revenue over the concession is projected at KSh 302.5 billion. Alongside the privately financed build, Kenya committed about KSh 24.8 billion of public money for land, utility relocation (KSh 7.76 billion for water and sewerage) and KSh 9 billion to repair the old Mombasa Road (Treasury figures, January 2023). The Annual Public Debt Report for 2024/25 discloses a KSh 103.76 billion termination sum payable to Moja Expressway if the state ends the deal early. An ITDP and UN-Habitat audit (April 2023) found footpaths on Uhuru Highway and Waiyaki Way were demolished for construction and few reinstated. No published traffic forecast for the concession was found, so no forecast-versus-actual comparison is possible.
🎓 Lesson
Demand beat the road's early numbers and the concession still lost money, because the repayment side was dollar-denominated while the tolls were collected in a weakening shilling. Checking whether traffic met forecast is not enough — the currency of the debt decides who is exposed.
Evidence🏛️ Official
Scale🏙️ City-wide
Cost≈US$0.5-0.7bn (reported between KSh 51bn and KSh 88bn; no audited figure found), plus ≈KSh 24.8bn of Kenyan public money for land and enabling works
FundingChina Road and Bridge Corporation equity and debt under a 27-year build-operate-transfer concession; Kenyan public funds covered land, utility relocation and repairs to the old Mombasa Road
Sources
↗ Nairobi Expressway — frequently asked questions (Moja Expressway)Fetched OK. Operator's own site. Verifies the two collection modes (ETC with on-board unit; manual collection by prepaid MTC card, cash or mobile money), the USSD and app channels, that rates are gazetted in the Kenya Gazette, and the operator name Moja Expressway Company Ltd. Publishes no traffic or revenue data.
↗ Citizen Digital — over 31,000 vehicles use expressway since launchFetched OK after an https-to-http host redirect. Verifies the 14 May 2022 public opening, Transport CS James Macharia's 31 May 2022 statement that use ran 'at times over 31,000 on a daily basis' during the two-week pilot (a count, not a capacity figure, and a peak rather than a mean), and the KSh 3,000 ETC and KSh 1,300 MTC card costs.
↗ Business Daily — Nairobi Expressway losses widen to Sh1.8bn amid traffic surgeFetched OK. Published 22 October 2025. Verifies 67,298 vehicles a day, 12.5 million vehicles in six months, KSh 7.16bn toll income against KSh 9bn costs, and a net loss of KSh 1.84bn widening from KSh 1.2bn. The underlying figures are National Treasury disclosures of the concessionaire's performance, not an independent audit. An earlier Business Daily piece gives KSh 4.6bn revenue for a full year to June, which is not arithmetically consistent with the KSh 7.16bn half-year figure; that revenue figure is therefore not used in this entry.
↗ Business Daily — Treasury discloses Sh103bn expressway termination feeFetched OK. Verifies the KSh 103.76bn termination sum payable to Moja Expressway on early termination, sourced to the Annual Public Debt Report for FY2024/25, and the 27-year PPP structure. Contains no mention of a minimum revenue guarantee.
↗ Business Daily — Why minister ignored advice to cut Nairobi Expressway toll feesFetched OK. Verifies that KeNHA recommended a toll reduction on improved inflation and exchange-rate figures, that Roads PS Joseph Mbugua declined, that toll charges are dollar-based so motorists carry exchange-rate risk, and the KSh 302.5bn projected concession revenue. States that the PPP agreement permits the Cabinet Secretary to adjust rates downward.
↗ Business Daily — Taxpayers to spend Sh24.8bn on Nairobi ExpresswayFetched OK. Published 5 January 2023. Verifies the KSh 24.8bn Kenyan public commitment for land compensation, utility relocation (KSh 7.76bn water and sewerage) and KSh 9bn of repairs to the old Mombasa Road, of which KSh 5.93bn had been released by June 2022. This is enabling works, not a revenue guarantee.
↗ ITDP and UN-Habitat — Nairobi Expressway AuditLanding page fetched OK; the 4.3 MB PDF downloads but could not be text-extracted in this environment (no PDF renderer available), so the footpath finding is taken from the publisher's page and the indexed text of its own PDF. Published April 2023 by ITDP and UN-Habitat with Nairobi City County, NaMATA and KeNHA. The only independent evaluation of the corridor found; it assesses non-motorised transport and public transport access, not tolling or finances, and gives the road as 26.8 km.
↗ Office of the Auditor-General (Kenya) — KeNHA reportsChecked. No Auditor-General report specific to the Nairobi Expressway concession was found; OAG has published project audits on the Nairobi Western and Southern Bypasses. Recorded here as a negative finding: the fiscal facts in this entry rest on National Treasury disclosures, not on an audit-body examination of the concession.
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Nairobi Expressway Electronic Tolling” — Nairobi, Kenya. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/nairobi-expressway-tolling/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
