Since Chinese navigator Zheng He pioneered the first Chinese official visit to the Kenyan coast during the Ming Dynasty (AD1368-AD1644), the African country has been an important strategic post along the Maritime Silk Road which connects Africa with China.

In the context of a comprehensively developed China-Africa relationship, Kenya and China have greatly stimulated their traditional friendship through the synergy between “Vision 2030”, Kenya’s national development plan, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China, effectively supporting the building of a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future.

The Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway is the flagship project of China-Kenya cooperation within the framework of the BRI, signifying that China attaches great importance to supporting Kenya in implementing the African Union’s “2063 Agenda” as well as the United Nations’ 2030 sustainable development agenda.

The SGR, the most advanced ordinary speed railway in Africa, has a total length of more than 480 kilometers and a total investment of $3.8 billion. It has China Railway Class I standards and is mainly designed for freight transportation, with a designed maximum train speed of 120 kilometers per hour.

According to the East Africa Railway Masterplan and the Agenda 2063 of the AU, the SGR will be extended westwards toward to landlocked regions in East and Central Africa. And through the Nairobi-Malaba SGR which is now under construction, the SGR will be finally connected with the newly-built railways in Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, providing not only an efficient transportation artery for the sub-regional integration of East Africa, but also a trans-continent transportation corridor connecting the Indian coast with the Atlantic coast.

As the host country of the narrow-gauged Uganda railway constructed by the British colonialists in the late 19th century, Kenya had been unable to independently construct or operate a railway due to a technological blockade from the colonisers. And this was a challenge which frustrated Kenya when it first envisaged improving inland transportation through the SGR.

The engagement with China provided Kenya with solutions covering railway design, financing, construction and operation.

The China EXIM Bank helped with 90 percent of the financing; the CRRC provided Chinese railway equipment and China Road and Bridge trained tens of thousands of Kenyans for the project.

It was through joint work of engineers, technicians and workers from both countries that the SGR could be accomplished in only two and a half years.

While the construction of the SGR was on, many Western critics called it a “white elephant” which would do little to improve Kenya’s development, also saying that it was “debt trap” deliberately created by China.

In fact, the SGR has been running smoothly since its official opening on June 1, 2017, and passenger and cargo volumes have been increasing steadily as the railway has become the primary choice for residents along the line and for cargo transportation.

It effectively connects the coastal economic belt centered in Mombasa with the central economic belt centered in Nairobi. Also, it will not only strengthen relations of the two core cities with the surrounding areas, but will further strengthen connections between the two economic circles, providing a convenient transportation channel for personnel and resources.

Separately, the efficient operation of the SGR has meant that the revenues of the Kenyan Railway Corporation have doubled in the fiscal year of 2017-2018, and are maintaining a steady growth.

Furthermore, the SGR is directly and indirectly stimulating the development of sectors such as building materials, machinery, communications, transportation, and personnel training, providing employment opportunities and cost-effective logistics services for Kenyans, while providing incentives for industrial upgrading and poverty alleviation.

Direct and indirect profits from the SGR will also guarantee that the loans from China will not end up as a burden on the sustainable social and economic development of Kenya.

In addition, the Kenyan government has planned a number of industrial parks and new towns along the railway line, making it the golden corridor of industrialization and urbanization. And with the further increase of transportation capacity, the role of the SGR in the social and economic development of Kenya will be further strengthened.

As the SGR continues to extend westward, it will link more landlocked but less developed areas, and more towns and residents along the line will enjoy the development dividend brought by the railway.

As a country with a lot of wild life, Kenya has long been concerned with the possible adverse effects of infrastructure building, something which was a concern to be dealt with by the SGR project. But with the technical support of China, Kenya has maintained the balance between railway the project and the protection of wild animals.

By building viaducts and bridges in the Nairobi and Tsavo national parks, the SGR has preserved space for the wild animals. Regarding the diesel engines for traction of the SGR, the fuel efficiency has been greatly improved so as to reduce energy consumption by comparison with their prototype in China.

Also, by using diesel locomotives the SGR has kept opening the possibility of electrification of the railway in the future, offering the opportunity of making the railway transportation a green traffic option free of carbon dioxide emissions.

Kenya’s support for the development of railway transportation and the scientific management by Chinese enterprises have ensured that the SGR can achieve its projected social and economic benefits. And the SGR is playing a role in showcasing the effect of China's work in Kenya and other African countries.

On April 25, 2019, in the talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta who was at the second Belt and Road Forum, both sides agreed to continue exploring the economic and social merits of joint infrastructure projects represented by the SGR, taking strategic and high-level cooperation to a new level.

The SGR is a vivid narration of the Chinese proverb that says:“ If you want be rich, then build roads and bridges”, which has been proven by the reform and opening-up of China.

The author Li Xinfeng is a researcher at the China-Africa Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences. Deng Yanting is a researcher at the China-Africa Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences.

The authors contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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