A huge African railway that cost £3.8billion to build looks set to get a new development.
The Kenya Standard Gauge Railway was opened in 2017 and financed by Exim Bank of China.
It connects the capital of Kenya, Nairobi, with Mombasa, a city on Kenya’s southeast coast 300 miles away.
Since being built, the railway has helped cut journey times for passengers from 10 hours to just four hours.
The main contractor for the project was the China Road & Bridge Corporation CRB. They employed 25,000 Kenyan workers to develop it.
It was Kenya’s most expensive infrastructure project since the country became independent more than 60 years ago.
However, a second phase of the project was meant to connect the Kenyan cities to Uganda, but that was abandoned because Kenya and Uganda were struggling to pay back debts owed to China.
Allegations of corruption and environmental concerns also held back the project.
Kenyan President William Ruto has asked China for a $1billion loan (£770million). Kenya reportedly owes China $6billion in Belt and Road Initiative debts.
In February, the Kenyan government signed a deal for the construction of the next phase, which will connect Naivasha to Malaba in Uganda.
Plans are also in place for a third phase, meaning the overall construction could end up costing £10billion.
Turkish construction firm Yapi Merkezi won the contract to build the 272km (169-mile) section, adding that this is “one of the largest projects signed by Turkish contractors abroad.”
Uganda hopes the railway will improve trade links and help them export 12 million bags of coffee each year.
Tim Zajontz, a research fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, told the South China Morning Post: “This is quite crucial, especially if the extension from Naivasha to the Ugandan border should come in the form of a public-private partnership with Chinese participation.”
