Billionaire Peter Munga, founder of Equity Bank, has silently placed himself at the centre of Kenya’s biggest infrastructure project the Sh468 billion Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway.
While the face of the project is a foreign firm, Everstrong Capital, documents show that Quickpass Limited, a company owned by Munga’s family, holds a 50 percent stake in the project. This means the Munga empire will directly benefit from toll collections on the 440-kilometre road for 30 years.
According to an exposé by Cyprian Is Nyakundi, Quickpass Limited is more than just a silent partner. It operates from Munga’s Muthaiga office, and its directors include Munga’s own son and daughter-in-law.
The company’s other members are all close associates, raising eyebrows about how this deal was structured behind closed doors. Nyakundi reveals how the family connection creates a clear conflict of interest and shields the project from proper public oversight. The expressway, promoted as a game-changer in transport, now appears more like a private ATM for Kenya’s well-connected elites.
The original proposal for the expressway had already been rejected by the PPP committee in July after being found to have failed key criteria.
Despite this, Munga’s Quickpass found its way back into the project through a shared front with Everstrong Capital. Everstrong, a Mauritius-registered company, is known for hiding its real owners behind secretive financial laws.
This means Kenyans may never know who is truly behind the money flowing into or out of this toll road. Everstrong owns all shares in its Kenyan unit and is involved in other big projects like Gulf Power Plant and SealTowers, further widening its hidden footprint in the country’s infrastructure sector.
The use of Mauritius as a base raises serious concerns. The tax advantages and lack of disclosure offered by Mauritius mean Munga and his associates could be raking in profits while avoiding public taxes and scrutiny. The inclusion of high-level foreign diplomats and corporate players in the governance of Everstrong only makes the entire structure more difficult to question.
As a result, it’s unclear whether this project is truly about development or about deepening the pockets of already wealthy men.
What makes the situation worse is that Kenyans will pay for this road daily. The toll system will shift the financial burden to ordinary citizens, while profits go to companies like Quickpass. With no transparency on who handles the tolling system, the engineering contracts, or the profit-sharing formula, it’s hard to believe this deal serves the public.
It looks more like a shadow arrangement crafted to reward those with insider access.
Peter Munga has a long history of profiting from strategic positions, from selling off shares in Britam to building massive wealth through Equity Bank. Now, by linking his family to a 30-year tolling business on a key transport corridor, he stands to secure yet another windfall.
The Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway, once seen as a national development project, now risks becoming a symbol of elite capture.
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