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| - Not all of Kenya’s neighbours are low-income: Tanzania, like Kenya, is lower-middle-income. Calling Kenya simply “middle-income”, as Ruto did, also blurs this distinction, and the category itself mixes very different economies, making comparisons misleading.
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Kenya has about 26,000 kilometres of paved roads, not 20,000. While there is a plan to tarmac 28,000 kilometres, Ruto however keeps shifting the timeline in his speeches.
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Even with gaps for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, available data shows neighbouring countries already exceed 20,000 kilometres of paved roads combined. Ruto’s claim is wrong, as Tanzania’s public works minister reminded him
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In a Nairobi church on 19 April 2026, Kenyan president William Ruto defended the country’s high fuel prices amid growing public disquiet.
Ruto sought to answer a question he had posed on the 2022 campaign trail, when he was the deputy president: Why is fuel in Kenya more expensive than in neighbouring landlocked countries like Uganda, which imports through Kenya’s port of Mombasa?
Four years later and now president, he had an answer.
“Our neighbours are least developed countries,” Ruto said. “There’s a big difference. If you want to compare Kenya fairly with others, compare Kenya with other middle-income countries.”
For context, fuel prices in Kenya surged in mid-April 2026, prompting the government to cut some taxes for at least 90 days. Ruto argued the spike, linked to the US-Israel-Iran war, was not unique to Kenya.
He also claimed Kenya’s tarmac road network equalled or was “more than” the combined total of its neighbours and therefore needed more money to maintain. A day later, Kenya’s government spokesperson repeated the president’s assertions.
But Tanzania’s public works minister, Abdallah Ulega, fired back, saying that “incorrect figures” were being used to “belittle” his country’s economy.
He said that Tanzania, like Kenya, is a lower-middle-income economy, and disputed the claim about road length.
But what does the data show? We fact-checked Ruto’s claims.
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The president argued that for a fair comparison of fuel prices, Kenya should be measured against other middle-income countries.
The World Bank classifies countries by income using gross national income (GNI) per capita, a measure of the average income earned per person in a year, at home or abroad. The development lender says this offers a simple way to estimate what people actually earn and often reflects the realities of daily life.
Income level
Threshold (US$)
Low-income
1,135 or less
Lower-middle-income
1,136-4,495
Upper-middle-income
4,496-13,935
High-income
13,935 or more
The country’s five neighbours are Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. Kenya is also a member of the eight-country East African Community, alongside Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi.
Kenya falls into the lower-middle-income economy, with a GNI per capita of $2,090 in 2024.
World Bank income classification (2024): Kenya, its neighbours and EAC member states
Country
GNI (US$) in 2024
Income level
Burundi
260
Low-income
Somalia
620
Low-income
DRC
670
Low-income
Uganda
970
Low-income
Ethiopia
1,100
Low-income, 2026 status under review
Tanzania
1,210
Lower-middle-income
Kenya
2,090
Lower-middle-income
South Sudan
-
No data
Ruto’s claim doesn’t hold. The most recent data shows Tanzania, like Kenya, is classified as a lower-middle-income economy.
His phrasing also matters. Calling Kenya simply “middle-income” glosses over the “lower” qualifier, subtly grouping it with wealthier countries and making higher prices seem more typical than they are.
“If you want to compare Kenya fairly with others, compare Kenya with other middle-income countries,” Ruto said. “That is how you will get the figures right.”
He added that prices in such countries were “possibly higher or the same” as Kenya’s.
As per the World Bank’s classification, Kenya is a lower-middle-income country, alongside a diverse group that includes India, Pakistan and 21 African states.
But they should not be compared like-for-like. Nine of these African countries – Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and Tunisia – are crude oil producers. According to the International Monetary Fund, domestic supply and subsidies often keep their fuel prices lower, while oil revenues can inflate average incomes without reflecting the reality for most citizens.
For example, in Nigeria, where subsidies were axed in 2023, a litre of petrol costs an average of 1,278 naira (95 US cents), and diesel 2,200 naira ($1.63), according to an open-source fuel tracker. (Africa Check’s Nigeria editor David Ajikobi confirmed these prices in Lagos streets on 21 April 2026.) This is against more than $1.5 for a litre of petrol in Nairobi.
The non-oil producers in the African lower-middle-income group are Benin, Eswatini, Guinea, Lesotho, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Here other factors, such as population sizes which shape demand, import volumes and infrastructure strain, complicate comparisons.
That means Kenya’s population of 56 million people creates a very different context to that in Benin (14.1 million), Mauritania (5 million), Guinea (15 million), Eswatini (1.2 million), Lesotho (2.3 million), Namibia (3 million), Senegal (19 million) or Zambia (21 million).
Zimbabwe, given its prolonged economic instability and currency distortions, is also not a reliable comparison.
Once oil producers, very small and unstable economies are set aside, we are left with Morocco, with 38 million people, and Tanzania, with 69 million people. We compared fuel prices in their capitals with those in Nairobi.
Country
Petrol price per litre (Local currency)
Petrol price (US$)
Diesel price (Local currency)
Diesel price (US$)
Kenya
KSh197.6
1.52
KSh198.7
1.53
Tanzania
TSh3,899
1.50
TSh3,884
1.49
Morocco
MAD15.60
1.68
MAD14.50
1.56
(KSh – Kenyan shilling, TSh – Tanzanian shilling, MAD – Moroccan dirham. Exchange rates vary.)
Prices in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, are slightly lower than in Nairobi, even though Kenya’s GNI per capita ($2,090) is nearly double Tanzania’s ($1,130). In Morocco, where incomes (GNI per capita of $3,840) are 84% larger than Kenya’s, prices are slightly higher.
We therefore rate the claim misleading. This is because the “lower-middle-income” label groups together countries with very different economic structures. Fuel prices depend on how supply, taxes and infrastructure interact, and how prices are perceived by consumers.
“Our fuel [prices] support transport infrastructure. I just want Kenyans to know that we have 20,000 kilometres of tarmac to maintain,” Ruto said.
He was referring to the KSh25 road maintenance levy charged on every litre of petrol or diesel sold in Kenya.
Kenya’s national statistics agency publishes annual figures on the country’s road network in its economic survey and statistical abstract.
The 2025 economic survey, released in May, put the length of Kenya’s paved roads at 24,868 kilometres as of 30 June 2024. The statistical abstract, released in November 2025, repeated the same figure.
Both cited the Kenya Roads Board as their source, noting that the data was provisional since “some roads may be reclassified after construction or upgrading”. The agency has previously told Africa Check that it is responsible for all roads funded by the levy.
The statistical abstract went further and cited transport ministry data, showing that Kenya’s paved road network was 26,004 kilometres, a figure that therefore includes roads outside the Roads Board’s mandate.
But whichever official figure is used, Ruto’s claim is well short of the mark. Kenya does not have 20,000 kilometres of paved roads, but about 25,000 to 26,000 kilometres. His claim is incorrect.
Ruto claimed the country had 6,000 kilometres of tarmac under construction.
In his pre-election manifesto published in June 2022, he noted 3,800 kilometres were under construction and pledged to “complete all roads under construction”.
Later, the government’s 2023-2027 plan set a target of building “6,000km of roads”.
According to Kenya’s statistics agency, there were 2,635 kilometres of major roadworks under construction as of December 2024.
Treasury sector reports for 2023, 2024 and 2025 showed that the roads department planned to build 4,063 kilometres between 2021 and 2027, of which 3,527.25 kilometres had been completed by June 2025.
Kenya’s government roads targets and built (2021-2027)
Fiscal year
Target (kilometres)
Kilometres built
2021/22
2,039
1,729
2022/23
448
495
2023/24
696
542
2024/25
206
761.25
2025/26
348
-
2026/27
326
-
Total
4,063
3,527.25
Even combining the length of roads planned, completed and being built does not come close to 6,000 kilometres under construction, as Ruto claimed.
At best, the figure reflects a multi-year target for 2023-2027. At worst, it conflates plans with reality, overstating the scale of ongoing work. (Note: Reliable figures on road construction in Kenya are notoriously difficult to obtain, as Africa Check’s experience over the years shows.)
Ruto has repeatedly pledged to expand Kenya’s road network by 28,000 kilometres, but the timeline has continually shifted.
In his November 2025 state of the nation address, he said the government had mapped out “28,000 km of roads to be tarmacked in the next 10 years”. The cabinet approved this plan in December 2025, as part of a broader transport and logistics expansion.
But in early 2026, the president began shortening the timeframe, first to seven years in January and February.
He then revised it back to 10 years on 28 March, when addressing foreign diplomats: “We want to tarmac another 28,000 kilometres in Kenya in the next 10 years, and it's possible, and we're going to do it.”
In April, speaking to Kenyans in Italy, he again framed it as a seven-year goal.
So while the 28,000 kilometre plan exists, its officially approved timeline is 10 years. The shorter seven-year version reflects a later, inconsistent framing rather than a documented policy shift.
“If you add the number of kilometres in Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, it is not 20,000 kilometres,” Ruto said.
He added: “So, the 20,000 kilometres we have in Kenya is more than all the tarmac in all the other seven countries in the EAC.”
But this claim rests on a faulty premise. As established earlier, Kenya does not have 20,000 kilometres of paved roads – the figure is close to 26,004 kilometres.
We then examined data from those countries, specifically the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the Tanzania Bureau of Statistics, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda and the National Institute of Statistics for Burundi.
Country
Paved roads (km)
Year
Tanzania
2024
Uganda
2024
Rwanda
2024
Burundi
2023
Total
20,681.73
Tanzania’s roads agency 2024 data, the most recent, put its paved roads at 12,196.07 kilometres. While the agency has quoted its minister saying it was 16,000 kilometres, this figure is not in publicly available datasets.
Reliable data for the DRC is limited, as the data agency’s website appears hacked (it is advertising casinos in France), the roads ministry has no online data and the roads agency is offline.
However, a 2024 academic study estimates its paved road network at 3,089 kilometres, consistent with earlier World Bank and US government figures (3,000 kilometres in 2017).
South Sudan’s statistics agency has no roads data, but the country’s 2013 infrastructure action plan put the total paved road at 258 kilometres, namely the Juba-Nimule road to Uganda’s border (193 kilometres) and urban roads in Juba (65 kilometres).
Even without including the DRC and South Sudan, the combined total already exceeds 20,000 kilometres – between 20,681 and 21,887.37 kilometres, depending on which data you use for Tanzania.
Taken together, the available evidence clearly contradicts Ruto’s claim, as the Tanzanian minister sought to remind him.
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