Amid concerns of its high price tag, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has inaugurated a Chinese-built railway, the country’s biggest infrastructure project since its independence.
The red-and-white diesel train left from the port city of Mombasa on Wednesday on its journey to Nairobi, carrying Kenyatta, Chinese dignitaries and citizens from around the country.
“Today we celebrate one of the key cornerstones to Kenya’s transformation to an industrialised, prosperous, middle-income country,” Kenyatta said at the inauguration ceremony.
The five-hour journey on what is being called the Madarake Express, or “Freedom Express”, will take half the time it takes to drive between the two cities.
The new railway will replace what was dubbed the “Lunatic Express”, the railway built more than a century ago by colonial Britain – known for its lengthy delays and breakdowns, as well as its high costs.
Transport Minister James Macharia said, however, that the government expects the railway to boost GDP by 1.5 percent, allowing them to pay back its loan from the Chinese “in about four years”.
Joseph Keiyah, of Kenya’s Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, told Al Jazeera that while the project is expensive, it has many benefits for the country.
“I think what Kenya is trying to do in a nutshell is to reposition itself as the strategic gateway to East Africa.”
The railway is part of a “master plan” by East African leaders to connect their nations by rail, with the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) planned to eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi and Ethiopia.
China’s Export-Import Bank financed 90 percent of the railway’s first leg, while the Kenyan government provided the remaining 10 percent.
Ajazeera
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