Nairobi, June 3 -- The government is set to wind up a Sh362 billion rural roads programme launched during former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration and replace it with a securitisation model, under which it plans to issue a bond backed by future collections from the fuel levy.

The National Assembly's Transport Committee disclosed that the government had resolved to scale down the annuity programme, citing the high cost of maintaining this variant of the public-private partnership (PPP) that the Jubilee government conceived as a means of reducing Kenya's heavy debt load from road projects.

Dubbed the 'Roads 10,000 Programme', the annuity model involves private contractors designing, building and maintaining roads for a predetermin...