Kenya Railways downplayed reports that it will be forced to cancel its contract with the Chinese-run AfriStar, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned enterprise China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), that currently operates the country’s Standard Gauge Railway, according to The Standard newspaper.
On Sunday, The Standard broke the story that Solicitor General (SG) Kennedy Ogeto called for the immediate termination of the contract with AfriStar, two years ahead of the agreement’s scheduled review date.
Ogeto reportedly cited the SGR’s poor economic performance and CRBC/AfriStar’s mismanagement as the causes for his decision.
In its response to the Solicitor General, Kenya Railways highlighted two key points of dispute that now frame this controversy:
- Kenya Railways says the Solicitor General’s request is just an “advisory,” implying that it’s not legally binding.
- In his comments, the Solicitor General focused on phase 1 of the SGR between Mombasa and Nairobi while Kenya Railways, inexplicably, responded by discussing Phase 2A between Nairobi and Naivasha.
So, it appears that the two sides are not referring to the same issues.
There’s been no comment from either AfriStar or CRBC.
Years of Mounting Kenyan Frustrations With CRBC
- TRANSPARENCY: “Kenya signed a secret agreement with the Chinese allowing a mystery company with unknown local shareholders to run the Standard Gauge Railway, documents seen by the Sunday Nation show.” (DAILY NATION)
- CORRUPTION: “A suspected multi-million-shilling ticketing fraud has hit the Mombasa-Nairobi train service with detectives investigating a complex web that involves insiders skimming off a significant portion of revenue from each trip. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives in Mombasa arrested three senior Chinese officials and their four Kenyan counterparts working for CRBC for attempting to bribe investigators.” (DAILY NATION)
- MISMANAGEMENT: “CRBC splashed over Sh1.3 billion on maintaining five Kenya Railways engineers supervising the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway, tender documents show. Among the items bought for the five, together with their helpers who were also Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) staff, were fat allowances, mobile phones and airtime.” (THE STANDARD)
- DISCRIMINATION: “An investigative journalist revealed that Kenyan workers at the Chinese-built railway were being subjected to repeated incidents of racial discrimination and abuse by their Chinese supervisors. The report also alleged that the CRBC, the Chinese conglomerate that operates the 473-kilometer Nairobi-Mombasa railway, was implementing a deliberate segregation policy.” (QUARTZ)
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