Kenya is bleeding billions of shillings in abandoned public projects, with fresh data showing that more than Sh600 billion has already been lost due to poor planning, corruption, and weak supervision.
The Project Management Institute (PMI), a global body that trains and certifies project managers, says the trend is not only slowing down development but also undermining investor confidence.
The stalled projects cut across infrastructure, water, energy, and ICT — among them the high-profile Aror and Kimwarer dams, which remain incomplete years after their launch.
Alan Maturu, PMI’s director of education and professional development, said the crisis has now grown beyond individual projects and is weighing down the broader economy.
“These failures not only stall growth but also deny Kenyans the benefits of investments meant to transform their lives. From dams and roads to ICT systems, money has been poured into projects that remain unfinished or fail to deliver value,” he said.
According to PMI Kenya president Maureen Mbithi, corruption, bureaucracy, delayed payments, and the appointment of unqualified managers are the leading causes of project failures.
“Many initiatives are being run by people who are unqualified in the project management space. We need professional project managers in every project to ensure efficiency and accountability,” she said.
PMI estimates that Kenya has about 150,000 certified project managers, far short of the 247,000 required by 2035. The institute is pushing for wider uptake of its 16 certifications covering construction, sustainability, and risk management.
Ms. Mbithi stressed that sustainable projects require skilled experts, warning that continued reliance on unqualified managers will waste more resources.
Maturu added that projects often collapse due to poor coordination among technical experts such as engineers and architects. “We want to make sure you cannot call yourself a project manager unless you’re actually certified,” he said, adding that such certification would bind professionals to a code of ethics and global best practices.
To curb wastage, PMI is lobbying Parliament to enact legislation regulating the project management profession, effectively locking out unqualified individuals from state projects.
“Countries like China have excelled because anyone involved in project management is a certified professional bound by codes of ethics and best practice. Kenya must move in the same direction,” Ms. Mbithi said.
