[1] The road starts at the township of Rironi, in Kiambu County, about 40 kilometres (25 mi), northwest of the central business district of Nairobi.
[4] This road is part of the Northern Corridor, that is used in the transportation of goods and passengers from the port city of Mombasa and the capital city of Nairobi, to Kenya's western counties and the land-locked countries of Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
[9] One of these consortia was awarded the contract to design, finance, build, operate, maintain the four-lane toll-highway for 30 years after commissioning, and then transfer it to the government of Kenya.
[1][9] In October 2020, the government of Kenya, represented by Kenya's Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development & Public Works, through KeNHA, and The Rift Valley Connect Consortium comprising Vinci Highways SAS, Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Fund, and Vinci Concessions SAS, signed a €1.3 billion (KES:163.8 billion) contract to (a) upgrade the existing Nairobi–Mau Summit Road to a dual four-lane highway (b) upgrade and widen the Rironi–Mai Mahiu–Naivasha Road to become a seven-metre carriageway with 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) shoulders on both sides (c) construction of a 4 kilometres (2 mi) elevated highway through Nakuru town and (d) construct and improve the interchanges along this highway.
The consortium will own, design, fund, construct, operate and maintain the toll-highway for 30 years after commercial commissioning, after which ownership will revert to the Kenyan government.