Likoni Gate Bridge: Kenya will spend a whooping Sh. 210 billion to construct a bridge over the Likoni channels. Likoni Gate Bridge, which is expected to ease passenger and vehicular crossings over the dreaded Likoni channel in Mombasa, will cost a staggering Sh. 210 billion.
It will also, technically, not be on the Likoni crossing as many had expected, but on the wider Mtongwe passage west of Likoni, towards the Kilindini port.
By end of December 2019, the government had only secured a commitment of Sh. 46 billion from the Japanese government for the project, also known as the Mombasa Gate Bridge.
In the loan agreement, according to documents from Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha), Japan would foot slightly over half of the cost of the project — Sh. 123 billion — which would settle construction and consultancy bills. The government would then be expected to foot Sh. 87 billion, part of which will go towards utility relocation costs on the Mombasa island and Likoni sides and compensation for the thousands of people and businesses that will be displaced by the project.
Kenya would also be expected to foot the Sh. 645 million interest accrued on the loan Japan will issue, and a further Sh. 247 million front-end fee.
About 1,200 residential and 833 commercial buildings will be brought down to pave the way for the bridge on both sides of the channel. The cost of compensation is expected to hit Sh. 12 billion even before construction starts.
Among the 725 parcels of land that will be repossessed by the government are 125 commercial and 10 residential plots in the Majengo area of the island, 234 residential and 38 commercial parcels in Likoni, and 46 residential plots in Mtongwe. Others are 263 parcels in Shika Adabu and nine agricultural tracts in Ng’ombeni, Kwale County.
The bridge will start on Lumumba Road, near Jela Baridi Prison in Majengo. It will go over the Mombasa Railway Station, Moi Avenue and Archbishop Makarios Road before it starts the arc over the Likoni Channel at Mwenza Creek. On the mainland side, it will join the Southern Bypass at Ziwani through Mtongwe Road.
The bridge should not be in the picture, Dogo Kundu bypass will take more than 75% of traffic off the Likoni channel ferries absolutely trashing any relevance of the extravagant white elephant bridge project. Who does such myopic planning for us?