Like other countries in east Africa, Kenya has embarked on an ambitious infrastructure investment programme in recent years to make up for decades of underinvestment, as it seeks to tap opportunities from growing regional trade.
"Decent road network throughout the country is crucial for growth," Uhuru Kenyatta told parliament in his budget speech.
The roads department will receive 100.9 billion shillings, nearly half of the total budget for physical infrastructure, for the period, while energy will receive 65.7 billion shillings, up from 35 billion shillings this fiscal year, Kenyatta added.
"Geothermal development will receive 16.1 billion shillings, which will be used to drill and assess the viability of producing 140 megawatts," the minister said.
Officials hope to increase electricity generation from the country's vast geothermal resources in the Rift Valley, to cut overreliance on hydrogeneration, which leads to blackouts when rains fail.
Kenyatta set aside 3.3 billion shillings for the study of a project to upgrade the rail network.
"It now costs about 100,000 shillings to transport a 20 foot container from Mombasa to Nairobi and it takes a whole day. The same container would cost about 40,000 shillings and delivered in just about four hours by a modern railway transport," he said. (Reuters)
