Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumBeijing prepares to seize Kenya's port of Mombasa
China may be preparing to seize some major assets in the African nation of Kenya, as a result of debt-trap diplomacy. African media reports that Kenya may soon be forced to relinquish control of its largest and most lucrative port in Mombasa to Chinese control. Other assets related to the inland shipment of goods from the port, including the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi, and the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), may also be compromised in the event of a Chinese port takeover.
Kenya has reportedly taken extremely large loans from the Communist government for the development of some major highways, and especially for the SGR, which forms a crucial transport link to and from Nairobi for the import and export of goods through Mombasa.
With a reported loss of US$98 million in its first year of operation, it would be nearly impossible to repay the loans taken for its construction in the time requested. Kenya reportedly accepted loans of US$4.9 billion for the SGRs construction.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Chinas designs on the nations of Africa are anything but benevolent. Kenya appears to be lining up behind Zambia, which is slated to lose its international airport, as well as its national electricity grid because of defaults on Chinese loans.
African nations must wake up to Chinas new form of colonialism that is chipping away at their critical infrastructure one major asset at a time.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3605624
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,465 posts)I can't find a date in the article itself, but the source code has a date of October 24, 2017.
Kenya Railways Corporation is developing a new standard gauge railway (SGR) line for passengers and cargo transportation between Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, and Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. ... The new railway line constitutes the first phase of the SGR project that aims to connect Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is the biggest infrastructure project in Kenya since independence. It will shorten the passenger travel time from Mombasa to Nairobi from more than ten hours to a little more than four hours. Freight trains will complete the journey in less than eight hours.
Construction of the 609km-long line began in October 2013 and is scheduled to be completed by December 2017. At least 60 new jobs a kilometre of track or approximately 30,000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction. ... The Mombasa-Nairobi phase of the project is estimated to cost KES327bn ($3.8bn). China Exim Bank will provide 90% of the financing while the remaining 10% will be contributed by the Kenyan Government.
....
Contractors involved
China Road and Bridge Corporation, a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co., was contracted to build the project according to Chinese railway design standards.
Wikipedia says it has been open for a year and a half already:
The MombasaNairobi Standard Gauge Railway is a standard-gauge railway (SGR) in Kenya that connects the large Indian Ocean city of Mombasa with Nairobi, the country's capital and largest city. This SGR runs parallel to the defunct, narrow-gauge Uganda Railway that was completed in 1901 under British colonial rule. The East African Railway Master Plan provides for the MombasaNairobi SGR to link with other SGRs being built in the East African Community.
At a cost of US$3.6 billion, the SGR is Kenya's most expensive infrastructure project since independence. The prime contractor was the China Road and Bridge Corporation, which hired 25,000 Kenyans to work on the railway. Phase 2A of this project was launched officially in October 2016.
The first fare-paying passengers boarded the "Madaraka Express" on Madaraka Day (1 June 2017), the 54th anniversary of Kenya's attainment of self-rule from Great Britain. Commercial freight services began on 1 January 2018. Passenger uptake has exceeded expectations, with the train carrying 2 million riders in the first 17 months of operation.