1. GOVERNMENT CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR
IMPLEMENTING PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP) PROJECTS IN
KENYA
By
Kevin Rombo Onyango
Economic Advisor-Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation
Nairobi, Kenya
+254712935025
Introduction
The Kenya government has demonstrated great commitment to promote PPPs in the
country. This has seen the formation of a PPP Unit with the Ministry of Finance (The
National Treasury) as the centre of expertise for PPPs in the Country and the enactment
of the PPP Act of 2013 that provides the legal and regulatory frame work for the
involvement of private sector in the designing, financing, building, operation and
maintenance of public infrastructure. Contracting authorities led by the respective
Government Ministries have established or are in the process of forming in-house PPP
Nodes for the purposes of identifying, screening, prioritizing proposed PPP projects
within their respective sectors that ultimately have to be forwarded to the PPP Unit for
onward review by the PPP Committee of the Cabinet before being included in the
National priority of PPP projects.
PPP in Selected Sectors
The Energy sector in Kenya has taken the lead in PPPs since it has implemented
successful PPP projects. Examples are Ngong Hills Wind Power Project and Olkaria IV
Geothermal Power Project. Other sectors: Health sector has also adopted PPPs through
leasing of hospital equipment; Education sector through Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)
of students’ hostels. Examples are Kenyatta University Students Hostel; Water Sector
has implemented management contracts and now developing BOT Models for the
development of water and sanitation infrastructure; Transport Sector is developing toll
roads-example is the proposed introduction of Toll charges on Thika Superhighway
through PPP- and has concessionaire contract in its Rift Valley Railways. Other sectors
and now even County Governments are proposing projects for consideration for
implementation through PPP arrangement.
Types of PPP Proposals
A PPP proposal can either be solicited or unsolicited. In Kenya Majority of PPP
proposals are solicited as they originate from public agencies as opposed to unsolicited
that originate from the private sector investors. Unsolicited proposals are limited as they
are subjected to rigorous review and have higher threshold to be met before acceptance.
They have to be unique, possess monopoly in terms of technology to be used and there
must be urgency in the intervention they want to address.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is no doubt that PPP's will accelerate the delivery of infrastructure
needs in Kenya as they will enable the Government to provide the much needed
infrastructure today thereby promoting economic development. However, as the
excitement with PPPs continue the Country needs not to look at PPPs as the sole saviour
in infrastructure development. PPPs are only there to supplement the Traditional

2. Government procurement through the budget and not replace it. Further, fiscal liability
to the government for PPP projects need to be factored in the debt reporting to prevent
operating in an illusion. Finally, the Country needs to build a pool of diverse experts
needed to implement PPP projects. These are Economists, engineers, financial experts,
Legal experts, procurement, statisticians etc. Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
is multidisciplinary and there require experts with diverse expertise for successful
inception, development and implementation of projects.