Tanzania's government has dismissed President William Ruto's assertion—made during an April 19 church service—that Kenya's 20,000 km of tarmacked roads exceeds the East African regional total. A minister highlighted Tanzania's own 16,000 km and a combined regional figure over 22,000 km.
In response to President William Ruto's April 19, 2026, remarks at a church service in Karen, where he justified Kenya's higher fuel prices by claiming its 20,000 km of tarmac roads surpassed the combined total in Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan, Tanzania's government pushed back on April 21.
A Tanzanian minister stated that Tanzania alone maintains 16,000 km of tarmac roads across urban and rural areas, with the East African total exceeding 22,000 km. "It must be known that Tanzania is a middle-low income country, and in East Africa, we are only two countries, Tanzania and Kenya," the minister said. "So those figures belittling us as other East African countries, those figures mentioned are untrue."
