Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of this year’s Babacar Ndiaye’s African award on transport and road infrastructure. In a ceremony in Dakar, Senegal on Friday the Africa Road Builders said Kenyatta won the 2018 award for Jubilee’s projects in railway, road, air as well as a nationwide street lighting.
Kenyatta will be presented with award on 23 May in Busan, South Korea, during the African Development Bank annual meeting. Babacar Ndiaye was an economist and a former president of the African Development Bank. He died last year at the age of 82.
The President of Media for Infrastructure and Finance in Africa Adama Wade cited the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway as major project that has had immense impact. “The SGR has reduced costs of travelling between the two cities by half and at the same time taking half of the time for the trip,” he said. “We thank and congratulate the AfDB and its President Dr Akinwumi Adesina for putting the issue of roads and transport high on its agenda through its ‘High 5 to Transform Africa’ programme,” said Mr Wade.
The General Commissioner of Africa Road Builders Barthélemy Kouame noted that transport networks, like blood vessels, must not be clogged. He congratulated Kenya for the efforts to improve transport and to foster regional growth through such projects as the Lamu Port. “We note the crucial role Kenya is playing as a commercial hub of East and Central Africa and the investment in big infrastructure projects to live up to the status,” he said. NAN
