Nairobi did not need the Expressway nearly as much as it needed mass transit. We spent roughly $668 million building a 27 km toll road in a city where only about 13% of trips are made by car, while 41% are by bus or matatu and another 40% are on foot. Imagine if an investment of that scale had instead gone into a tram or light-rail line along the same corridor, integrated with buses and matatus. Addis Ababa built 34 km of light rail for $475 million, while Casablanca chose to build an extensive tram network that moves ordinary residents across the city. Nairobi could have been thinking along the same lines: infrastructure designed to move the greatest number of people, not simply the greatest number of cars. Uhuru Kenyatta is often praised for giving Nairobi the Expressway, but perhaps we should ask who exactly was it built for? Nairobi’s elites who can afford to drive and pay the toll, or the common mwananchi who depends on public transport every single day?