This archive report was first published on 19 October 2019.
President Uhuru Kenyatta's government has been criticized for adding the Naivasha section to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project, which was not part of the initial plan.
The SGR was initially designed to run from Mombasa to Kisumu and Malaba, but the government decided to add the Nairobi-Naivasha section, which has resulted in increased costs.
According to the World Bank, the SGR needs to carry at least 55.2 million tonnes of cargo annually to be financially viable, but the current traffic is barely adequate, with less than 15 million tonnes carried in a year.
Despite this, the government has continued to force importers onto the SGR, including directing all ministries, departments, and agencies to use the railway for their transportation.
Official data shows that rail freight traffic more than tripled from 1,147,000 tonnes in 2017 to 3,544,000 tonnes last year, following the introduction of freight transportation services on the SGR.
However, revenue from railway freight increased from Sh3 billion in 2017 to Sh9.8 billion last year, which is barely enough to operate the railway and repay the over Sh400 billion loan taken from China for the project.
President Kenyatta has insisted that any railway project results in development, but experts have noted that without enough traffic, the SGR could easily be a white elephant.
China, the financier of the SGR, has not released cash for the remaining section of the railway from Naivasha to Kisumu, and the government has opted to upgrade the metre gauge, but there are reports showing the idea has been dropped altogether.
