The government has formally abandoned plans to construct a new Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway proposed by a U.S. infrastructure firm, Everstrong Capital and instead opted to expand the existing highway to four lanes.

According to a Treasury document obtained by Kenyans.co.ke, the government outlined its revised approach to one of Kenya’s most ambitious road infrastructure projects.

Under the new plan, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) will increase the capacity of the existing highway to four lanes and convert it into an access-controlled tolled road.

The National Treasury in its Q2 project status report said the 461-kilometre highway project will also use designs that reduce disruptions to nearby towns, businesses and local roads.

Everstrong had submitted the proposal under the Privately Initiated Proposal (PIP) framework of the Public Private Partnership Act.

However, the proposal was rejected by the National Treasury’s PPP Committee after it failed to satisfy the evaluation criteria set out under the PPP Act, 2021.

The committee’s decision followed a comprehensive review of the proposal, after which Everstrong was advised to restructure the project by shifting its focus from constructing a new expressway to expanding the existing Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

The latest Treasury report confirms that the government has now fully adopted that approach, effectively shelving the proposal for a new expressway in favour of upgrading the current highway.

The report lists the Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway among projects in the early-stage preparations phase and describes its scope as expanding the existing road rather than developing a separate expressway.

To advance the project, the Treasury now says it has initiated the procurement of a Transaction Advisor and that the Request for Proposals (RFP) was published on March 10, 2026, with the evaluation of submitted bids currently underway.

Once completed, the expanded Nairobi-Mombasa highway is expected to significantly ease congestion along Kenya’s busiest transport route, which forms part of the Trans-African Highway and the Northern Corridor.

The highway connects the Port of Mombasa with Nairobi and several landlocked countries, including Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The government says the upgrade will improve the movement of people and goods while supporting trade, tourism and regional economic integration.