In Tanzania, the Road Fund Board (RFB) is responsible for funding road maintenance activities. Funds allocation between implementing agencies is based on maintenance needs: 70% of the Fund is provided to TANROADS for maintenance of trunk and regional roads; 30% is given to local authorities for maintenance of the district, feeder and service roads. Sources of RFB financing are 96% through fuel levy and 4% though traffic charges (i.e. fees paid for cross-border traffic), overloading fees and freight vehicle license fees. Thus, the overall Fund budget depends on both fuel consumption and traffic flows. The Fuel levy for the financial year 2010/11 is fixed at 200 Tzs per litre (about 0.12 USD).

The total maintenance needs for the whole road network in Tanzania for financial year 2010/11 are Tshs.479.56 billion (about 298.4 USD million), while the expected revenue for maintenance for the same period is Tshs.262.03 billion (about 163.0 USD million). In other words, the Fund can currently cover only about 55% of the requirements. The 45% financial gap, in particular affect periodic maintenance which prevents reconstruction later on. Thus, due to the existence of a huge backlog of maintenance (totalling Tshs.216 billion annually for a period of 5 years), and in order to close the gap within a period of three years, RFB has proposed to increase fuel levy by Tzs. 50/litre. The levy increase is also needed to compensate for value loss resulting from inflation and depreciation of Tanzanian shilling. However, this proposal was not adopted due to the resistance of the government which did not want the measure to affect its political consensus [28] [29] .

In Kenya, funding for road maintenance is provided by the Kenya Road Board (KRB), established and operational since 1999. KRB allocates funds to autonomous road agencies for the maintenance, rehabilitation and development of the categories of roads in respect of which they are designated for: 32% is allocated to the Rural Roads Authority; 40% to KenHa; 15% to the Urban Roads Authority; 1% to Kenya Wildlife Service; 2% for the recurrent expenditure of the Board; and the remainder 10% is allocated annually, with the approval of the Minister, to different road investment priorities derived from the five-year road investment programme. In financial year 2010/11 KRB expects an annual revenue of Ksh.27.3 billion (about 300 USD Million), 99% of which comes from fuel levy. Current fuel levy is 0.10 USD per litre of petrol and diesel consumed.

With total maintenance needs for the whole road network in Kenya (about 160,000 km) assessed at Ksh.50.0 billion (about 550 USD million) for financial year 2010/11, the Fund can cover only about 55% of the requirements, with a financial gap of 45%. Given this constraint, in order to have (sub) optimal budgetary allocation, KRB has developed a “cyclical” approach to maintenance, which is reflected in the national Road Sector Investment Programme. Accordingly, all roads are reviewed, listed and prioritized on the basis of a set of criteria such as road condition, level of traffic, location, exposure to weather (activities) and so on. The system is intended to have a concrete and more accurate financing mechanism, to mitigate the lack of financial resources.