INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Infrastructural Development In Kenya : Who Really Benefits ?
By Walter Nyabundi
Anyone visiting Kenya today who has been away for a lengthy period of time would be surprised , and I daresay even impressed by the level of infrastructural development they would find . Leaving the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport , they would be met by the mega construction of the JKIA- Westlands Highway , popularly known as the Nairobi Expressway . This edifice once completed will stretch about 50 kilometres connecting JKIA to Rironi , in Kiambu County , along the Nairobi- Limuru Road ; it is primarily intended to ease traffic from JKIA to the Nairobi Central Busines District .
Assuming they wanted to visit Mombasa at some point during their stay in the country , they would likely opt for a train ride to the port city using the Madaraka Express train service via the Mombasa- Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway ( SGR ).
Both of these massive infrastructure projects have one significant thing in common ; they are both driven and supported by the Chinese . In the case of the Expressway , the Kenyan government is contracted with the China Road and Bridge Corporation ( CRBC ) to build the toll road on a public-private partnership ( PPP ) basis . The CRBC is expected to finance expansion and construction of the road expansion , interchanges and toll stations . They will collect the toll fees until their investment is recovered , then the road will revert to the government .
It is thought that the World Bank had initially indicated interest in funding the road expansion but those plans unravelled . The cost of the Expressway is quoted as between KSh51 billion ( US $ 510 million ) and KSh65 billion ( US $ 650 million ). At a cost of US $ 3.6 billion , the SGR is Kenya ' s most expensive infrastructure project since the country gained independence in 1963 . The main contractor was the CRBC ; CRBC ' s holding company , China Communications Construction Company was contracted to operate the line for its first 5 years .
The SGR on its part , is a particularly interesting case study . The Chinese-built railway moves people and goods from Mombasa to Nairobi , and now also to Naivasha . Plans are afoot to extend it to Malaba Border Town in Busia County .
In February last year , Kenya marked 1,000 days of the SGR ’ s operation , with 13,000 train rides covering 6.3 million kilometres . The government has taken immense pride and displayed an almost
Essentially , Kenya has come to a point where the very concept of infrastructure development - at least in the general public ’ s psyche - cannot be entirely divorced from the Chinese involvement . The implications of this for other countries that provide Kenya with development assistance are huge . smug sense of self-satisfaction in how the project has unfolded .
Many Kenyans however continue to point out that the country got a raw deal compared to its neighbours Tanzania and Ethiopia who have also taken on massive railway expansion projects recently . It is estimated that Kenya borrowed more than $ 3 billion from China to build the 472-kilometre railway from Mombasa to Nairobi . It borrowed another $ 1.5 billion for the branch from Nairobi to Naivasha .
It is the considered opinion of a number of leading economic analysts that this project has precipitated the debt crisis that the country now finds mired itself in . Notably , the Kenyan government has repeatedly declined to make public the full agreement it had with the Chinese contractors on the railway project . Those who have attempted to obtain this information from Chinese government officials have noted that they have been even far less forthcoming than their Kenyan counterparts on this matter .
Indeed , in 2019 , China ' s ambassador to Kenya noted that Chinese law was primarily meant to protect the country ’ s commercial interest , and it was not in his remit to comment on supposed secret dealings between his country and Kenya . This extraordinary display of sophistry and obfuscation on the part of both governments in a number of ways only serves to undermine Kenya ’ s own laws around public participation and public finance .
This raises two fundamental questions ; one , who benefits from these mega infrastructure development projects in Kenya and two , what does development mean to Kenyans ?
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