The ghostly silence that has haunted Mombasa’s construction sites for months is about to be shattered by the roar of heavy machinery. In a decisive financial maneuver, the government has unlocked a staggering Sh4.5 billion tranche specifically for the coastal city, part of a controversial yet critical Sh175 billion fuel levy securitization deal.

This liquidity injection marks the end of a crippling standoff between the Kenya Roads Board and unpaid contractors who had downed tools, leaving major thoroughfares like the Mombasa-Malindi highway in a state of dangerous disrepair. The funds, secured through a partnership with UBA Bank, effectively mortgage future fuel levy collections to provide immediate cash, a move Treasury argues is the only way to save the country’s crumbling infrastructure backbone.

Following the Money

The securitization model represents a paradigm shift in how Kenya funds its development.)By pledging Sh7 from every litre of fuel consumed directly to investors, the state has bypassed traditional borrowing constraints. For Mombasa, this means the immediate resumption of work on the Dongo Kundu bypass connectors and the congestion-prone Makupa causeway expansion.

However, economic purists warn that this "advance" on future revenue risks hollowing out the Kenya Roads Board’s coffers for the next decade. "We are eating our children’s lunch to pay for today’s dinner," noted one skeptical auditor, though conceding that for the stalled contractor, cash in hand is the only metric that matters.

• The Contractor Exodus: Before this deal, major Chinese and local firms had abandoned sites, citing over Sh140 billion in pending bills nationwide. The return to site is expected to re-employ over 2,000 casual laborers in Mombasa County alone.
• The UBA Factor: The pan-African lender's involvement signals a growing reliance on private sector syndication to plug public finance deficits, a trend likely to accelerate as sovereign bond markets remain expensive.

A Race Against Time

With the long rains approaching in April, the race is on to pave vulnerable sections before the deluge renders them impassable. Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has welcomed the move but demanded strict oversight to ensure the billions are not diverted to "ghost projects" in the hinterland.

This Sh4.5 billion is not just asphalt and bitumen; it is a desperate bid to jumpstart the coastal economy which has been suffocated by logistical bottlenecks. Whether this financial engineering proves to be a masterstroke or a debt trap remains to be seen, but for now, the excavators are back in business.