The Chinese-funded railway from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa to the Ugandan border — and, it is hoped, eventually to Uganda’s capital, Kampala — encapsulates the evolution of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa.
The $3.2bn first segment, stretching 475km from Mombasa to the capital Nairobi, was opened with fanfare 16 months ago, despite widespread criticism over the opacity of the financing terms. Within weeks of the first trains running, work had begun on the second, $1.5bn, 120km section from Nairobi to Naivasha in the heart of the Great Rift Valley. This time there was much greater scrutiny of the financing, with a target completion date of June 2019.
The Kenyan government expected to sign a deal for China to finance the third stage, from Naivasha to Kisumu, on the banks of Lake Victoria, at this month’s triennial China-Africa summit in Beijing. But China balked at agreeing to pay half the estimated $3.8bn cost. Kenyan infrastructure minister James Macharia said a more detailed feasibility study was requested by Beijing “to establish the commercial viability”.