How can Kenya achieve inclusive development?

In my experience in the transport sector, investing in socio-economic infrastructure, alongside road construction, goes a long way in helping marginalized communities transition from poverty to prosperity. Maximizing the social and economic benefits of critical infrastructure investment calls for greater collaboration across sectors, a high degree of flexibility and creativity, and putting community needs at the heart of project design. In other words, don’t just build: Build with people in mind!

To see what infrastructure investment can do to improve lives, let’s take a closer look at Kenya’s Turkana community. Turkana County is a vast, semi-arid region in northwest Kenya, with a sparse population of just over one million people. It borders Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia, and is accessed by the A1 Road, an international highway that connects to the major trade route between Kenya’s port of Mombasa and the larger East African markets. The A1 Road is also the shortest bulk transport route linking the land-locked country of South Sudan to the port of Mombasa.

In Turkana, the main economic activity is pastoralism. Many residents lack easy access to water, electricity, education, and healthcare, and social indicators, such as literacy levels and life expectancy, are far below Kenya’s national average. Communities endure banditry and cattle rustling. Extremely poor road infrastructure has, in the past, made it difficult for food and medicine to reach them. Women and young girls suffer forced labor and child marriages. There are few opportunities for income-generating activities to improve their quality of life.

When a World Bank team, led by Lead Transport Specialist Josphat Sasia, carried out a reconnaissance survey for the A1 Road in 2012, it was apparent that investment in basic infrastructure could bring benefits to Turkana County, its residents, and its economy.

From 2015 to 2024, the World Bank supported an ambitious project to boost trade and transport between Kenya and its neighbors in the north and northwest, with $500 million in financing. Turkana was one of the regions to benefit from this. The project led to:

• An upgrade of 330 km of the A1 Road to bitumen standards; 34 bridges were built across rivers and fords.
• Rehabilitation of 400 km of fiber optic cable and a new 600 km of high-capacity cable, with the capacity to support South Sudan.
• Construction of ten schools (serving 7,000 students), six dispensaries (for a minimum of 143,000 patients annually), four water supply projects (for 6,700 households), a livestock market (to serve 3,500 people), an ICT hub (for 50,000 users annually), a police post, and truck parking areas.

It now takes only four hours to drive to Turkana along the 300km A1 Road section between the Kenyan towns of Kitale and Lodwar. I remember the same journey taking more than two days! And only if one was lucky enough to make it across the mighty Turkwell River, where there was an old, dilapidated bridge.

Before and after road construction at Lokichar center.

Photos: Chams Media Ltd.

Building better lives through infrastructure

To come back to the importance of socio-economic infrastructure: Improvements to the A1 Road have contributed to a 50% drop in fares on public transport on the upgraded sections of it. Many children who sat in dilapidated classrooms, now sit in properly built and safe classrooms with free internet. Schools have boarding facilities—a necessity where many families live nomadic lives—and children no longer have to move with their parents from one place to another.

Families have access to better health care within a reasonable distance. More waterpoints for livestock and households have shortened long walks to fetch water and the incidence of water-borne disease have reduced. People can buy food more cheaply and reach markets more easily, where their interactions with other communities may aid peaceful co-existence in a region that has suffered decades of community conflict.

And while Turkana has always been beautiful, it has now become more of a tourist destination with modern facilities. The hotel industry is growing. There are scheduled flights from Nairobi to Lodwar. The towns of Kainuk, Lokichar, Kakuma, and Lokichoggio provide residents more economic opportunities.

Seeing the social benefits of cross-sector collaboration

But what strikes me most is a change in mindset in this remote region when it comes to gender biases. As part of the project, the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar worked on education and training on economic empowerment opportunities for women and girls. It also provided emergency response services for survivors of gender-based violence.

The project maximized integration, collaboration, and efficiency. Road and ICT agencies worked together to upgrade the road and lay new fiber optic cables at the same time. They optimized the use of facilities that could be shared, such as the right-of-way for the passage of fiber cables across ducts built into bridges.

Newly constructed Kawalasse River bridge. See the “before” photo at the top of this blog. Photo: Chams Media Ltd.

The road agency worked with the Kenyan government’s ministries of education, health, water, and ICT, and Turkana’s and West Pokot’s County governments. Through a last-mile connectivity initiative, the ICT Authority provided internet connections to more than 190 public institutions, including government offices, schools, and health facilities. The Kenya Revenue Authority built offices along the A1 Road to bring their services closer to people and aid the movement of transit cargo.

All in all, looking back, I feel this project, which we completed this year, is a good example of how well integrated investment amplifies the social impacts of infrastructure, and really makes a difference in reducing multidimensional poverty.