The first phase of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line from Mombasa to Nairobi is almost complete, with the second multi-billion phase covering Naivasha, Kisumu and Malaba set to kick off late next year.
However, serious queries are being raised over the viability of this multi-billion mega project. To begin with, it is estimated that the SGR will cost Sh327 billion compared to refurbishing the current metre gauge railway that would have cost Sh20 billion.
When fully operational, the goods are expected to move at a maximum of 80km per hour and passengers at 120km per hour, which according to the economists can be achieved by refurbishing the current railway.
According to Pierre Pozzo di Borgo of the International Finance Corporation, rehabilitating the older line might have cost just 5 per cent as much as building a new one on a new right of way.
Comparisons are also being made with the railway project being currently undertaken by Ethiopia, putting questions on why Kenya opted for an old-school, costly railyway project.
Ethiopia is currently building a 756km electric rail cutting across Ethiopia from its capital Addis Ababa all the way to the Red Sea state of Djibouti will start operating by September this year. The railway project will cost an estimated Sh. 300 billion compared to Kenya’s Sh. 327 billion 427 km SGR.
“We have completed 95 per cent of the project. We are waiting for allocation of electricity for the line and will start full operation in September,” said Mr Getachew Betru, the CEO of the Ethiopian Railway Corporation. The Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway links Addis Ababa with the port of Djibouti, providing landlocked Ethiopia with improved railroad access to the sea.
Strikingly, the two projects in Kenya and Ethiopia are being financed by the Export-Import Bank of China. The decision by land-locked East Africa countries such as Uganda to connect to the Indian Ocean through Tanzania have only added doubts on whether the SGR is really worth the billions borrowed to finance it.