CHINA-KENYA: CHINA BUILDS ANOTHER RAILWAY

Voice of America (VoA) reported (October 16) that a new railway built by China at a cost of US$ 1.5 billion was put into operation in Kenya on October 16. It connects the capital city Nairobi with Naivasha, a small town in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted the opening ceremony of the railway.

The railway is an extension of the Nairobi-Mombasa railway, which cost US$3.2 billion and started operating in 2017. China funded and built that. Kenya’s railway development has been part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative. It includes multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects designed to enhance overland and maritime trade between China and Europe, Asia and Africa.

(Comment:  Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was re-elected in 2017 for anther five-year term, has pledged to develop infrastructure in Kenya and railway construction has always been his favorite project. The Kenyan government has been borrowing in order to fund infrastructure projects. The national total public debt is currently about 55 percent of GDP. It was at 42 percent when Kenyatta took office in 2013.)






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