Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta recently inaugurated a new US$1.5 billion Chinese-built rail line linking the capital Nairobi to the Rift Valley town of Naivasha. The much delayed project will boost the freight traffic between the capital city and the industrial park situated in Naivasha, an important industrial town of the country, according to the government sources. This Chinese funded project will be an extension of the port of Mombasa and Nairobi link that was opened in 2017. This Chinese funded railway track is suffering from under utilization. But both China and Kenya are hopeful of the two lines operating to its full capacity in due course of time. The underlying premise is that once the infrastructure network is in place, economic and business activities would pick up on its own. The two projects-Mombasa and Nairobi and Nairobi and Rift Valley – are Chinese funded.
Significantly, the development of Kenya’s railways has been a part of China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, a multi-billion dollar series of infrastructure projects upgrading land and maritime trade routes between China and Europe, Asia and Africa. The project also referred to as a re-creation of the ancient Silk Route is designed to enhance the global physical infrastructure linking countries, continents and cultures. Critics also term the project as one, which China has devised to serve its economic and political ends. Some neighboring countries like India, Japan etc have chosen to be out of joining the corridor.
But some of the African countries including Kenya are favorably disposed of the project on account of the connectivity advantage the project can deliver. Kenya is wanting to develop industrial park in Naivasha and it is offering companies tax breaks and preferential tariffs for electricity generated in the nearby geothermal fields. But so far the project has not been evoked much interest because of the infrastructural bottlenecks being faced to move goods. China backed infrastructure project is expected to give a vital break to Kenya and similarly placed African countries.
The development of railways is the pet project of Kenyatta, who was re-elected in 2017 on the promise that he would re-double his efforts to flag development works. Some chinks appear to have been developed in the project with China refused to fund the planned US$3.7 billion extension from Nairobi to the Ugandan border town of Malaba. As a result, Kenyan government would spend US$210 million to rehabilitate the colonial-era Malaba line instead. However, traders say that the new Mombasa to Nairobi railway is too expensive to move freight. It costs about US$800 to truck a container from Mombasa to Nairobi. But, rail haulage will cost upwards of US$1,100 mainly due to extra costs for moving goods from the rail terminus to an inland depot. Kenyan authorities are hopeful that the commissioning of the new line would bring down the cost of haulage to attract more traders to use railways as the preferred mode of transport.
