Motorist Association of Kenya Statement on Tolling of Roads

The Motorists Association of Kenya is deeply disturbed by the increasing burden placed on motorists under the guise of infrastructure development. Today, nearly half of the cost of every litre of fuel goes to taxes. On top of this, motorists are still being charged an inflated and arguably illegal Roads Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) of Ksh 25 per litre – a figure that continues to rise without public justification or proper parliamentary oversight.

The transport sector, the backbone of Kenya’s economy, pays more than its fair share – through fuel levies, excise duty, licensing fees, insurance, spare parts tax, and countless other consumer taxes. All these go into the National Treasury, presumably to fund public services. Yet, when it comes to roads – a core government responsibility – the same government now seeks to offload this burden to private foreign contractors through toll fees.

This is a betrayal of public trust. Roads are public assets, built and maintained using taxpayers’ money. Imposing additional toll charges on motorists – after already taxing them heavily – is not only unjust, it is exploitative. It amounts to double taxation, and worse, to handing over our sovereignty to profit-hungry privateers.

We must be clear: the government’s role is to provide public services to its citizens, not to enrich private companies at their expense. Even the RMLF, which we have tolerated, remains a subjective levy with limited transparency. But allowing foreign firms to profit from tolls on public roads is an unacceptable overreach, a move that can only be likened to violating citizens and inviting others to do the same.

Kenyan motorists will no longer stand by in silence. We will resist these excesses. Public roads must remain in the hands of public not clever concessionaires.