Road contractors are set to receive Sh139 billion after the government secured funds to settle certified bills and get delayed road projects back on track. Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir said payments for eligible works completed during the last quarter will start on August 21, with the exercise expected to run until August 28.
The move is expected to ease financial pressure on construction companies that have struggled with delayed payments, a situation that has affected the pace of work on several road projects.
Chirchir made the announcement on Thursday during a meeting attended by road contractors, engineers and technical officers from the State Department for Roads and its implementing agencies.
He said the government had already received the first tranche under the latest financing arrangement and was expecting another tranche soon.
According to the CS, the government had turned to securitisation because ordinary Exchequer funding was not enough to finance ongoing road projects while at the same time clearing the growing amount of unpaid obligations.
“We are not simply clearing yesterday’s pending bills. Our objective is to stop creating tomorrow’s pending bills,” Chirchir said.
The latest funding follows an earlier arrangement in which the government used Sh7 from every litre under the Road Maintenance Levy Fund to raise Sh175 billion through securitisation.
That money was used to clear pending payments for certified road works and eligible interest obligations up to March 2026. The arrangement helped contractors whose projects had slowed because of unpaid bills to return to construction sites and continue with their work.
About 560 contractors who had been owed Sh50 million or less received their payments early last year. The government then continued settling other outstanding obligations through December.
Chirchir said the latest round of payments would follow the same system, with claims required to be properly measured, verified and certified before they can be paid.
He called on contractors to remain on site and increase the pace of construction while ensuring they comply with agreed costs, deadlines and quality standards.
The CS also made it clear that contractors should not rely on brokers or other intermediaries to secure payment.
“There should be no middlemen and no preferential treatment. If a certificate is properly certified and eligible, it should be processed in accordance with the approved payment framework,” he said.
The government is also putting tighter checks on the certification of road works to make sure that the additional money going into the sector produces the expected results.
Chirchir told engineers and technical officers to take full responsibility for the quality, cost and scope of the projects under their watch.
He cautioned them against approving or certifying work that they would not be able to justify in their professional capacity.
The decision to release more money to contractors comes at a time when the road sector continues to deal with a financing shortfall. The shortage has contributed to delays in completing projects while leaving contractors under growing financial pressure.
Through the latest financing arrangement, the government is seeking to deal with existing certified bills while creating a system that can reduce the chances of new unpaid obligations building up.
The State expects the payments to provide contractors with the financial support needed to continue work on ongoing projects and improve the pace of road construction.