Nine Infrastructural projects that made Uhuru win Africa development award

President Uhuru Kenyatta has become the first Kenyan leader to win the most prestigious infrastructure development award in Africa.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has been feted internationally for overseeing the evolution of some of the best mega plans in Africa.

Projects such as the SGR, Outering Road and Dongo Kundu Bypass are among the best in the continent. Others such as the 505 km Isiolo-Marsabit Moyale highway has switched the face of hitherto neglected regions.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has become the first Kenyan leader to win the most prestigious infrastructure development award in Africa.

On May 25, President Uhuru Kenyatta was awarded by the 2018 Super Prize Great Builder Babacar Ndiaye Award in South Korea for Jubilee government's transformative projects in the railway, road and air sub-sectors as well as in street lighting.

Last year award was won by Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Senegal's Mica Sall.

The transformative mega projects that helped Uhuru emerge the best in the continent are:

1. Standard Gauge Railway

The SGR project has completely changed the way people travel between Nairobi and Mombasa. A journey that used to take 10 hours by bus now takes only six hours on the SGR at a cheaper cost and reduced risk of accidents.

2. Isiolo-Moyale Road

Until now, one of Kenya's worst roads, Isiolo- Moyale Road- today nothing beats cruising on this engineering marvel that connects Kenya to Ethiopia and which cost KSh 42 billion.

3. Outering Road

The KSh 8.5 billion highway was opened to traffic in 2017 and has offered a major relief to millions of Eastlands residents by greatly easing traffic movement.

4. Mwatate-Taveta Road

The KSh 8.4 billion road connecting Mwatate and Taveta is part of the multinational highway linking Voi town and the Tanzanian city of Arusha.

5. Ngong Road

This road has for years been synonymous with traffic snarl-ups. But this has changed with the ongoing expansion of the road by a Japanese contractor.

6. JKIA, Isiolo airport upgrade

The airport in 2017 got approval to have direct flights to the United States after attaining the highest International Aviation Safety Assessment status.

7. Mombasa modern highway

Mombasa in the past three years witnessed a total road infrastructure transformation as part of a KSh 100 billion coastal roads master plan by the government.

8. Lamu Road

The building of a 15km road at Mokowe town, where the headquarters of the county is located, is the first tarmac to be built in Lamu since independence.

9. Mbita Causeway

In Nyanza region, one of Uhuru's major projects is the construction of a mage bridge that connects Rusinga Island to Mbita town.