NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) – A China-funded railway connecting the Kenyan capital with a key port brings a wide range of benefits to the country, said Kenya’s railway chief during a recent interview with China Global Television Network.
The Mombasa-Nairobi railway will soon be in service.
It will help cut the travel time of a 400-kilometer distance from about six hours to four.
Atanas K. Maina, Managing Director of Kenya Railways, said the railway will help boost local people’s livelihood.
“For our country, it is a big deal that we have such a project. We’ve for the last 30 years been struggling with projects of this magnitude. Every two years, we have to keep redoing our roads. The cost of doing business, the cost of movement between Mombasa and Nairobi. The accidents we’ve had on those roads has been enormous. We believe that with what we have achieved, we are beginning to address the challenges that have hindered our speed in terms of achieving the socio-economic changes that we want to bring in order to improve the lives of our people,” said Maina.
Maina believes that the railway, which is the first newly-built line in the country over the past century, is necessary and feasible.
“We believe we are doing it for this country; it is a project for the country, it is for all the people of Kenya. This project will be serving us for the next 100 years to come. That is the design life of the project,” Maina said.
He added that the project funded by Chinese construction company CRBC has helped to create jobs for Kenyans.
He added that more African young people can learn from the skills and technical training partnerships between Kenya and China.
“We can say without doubt that in the last three years, a lot of Kenyans have been able to acquire skills. For the time that CRBC have been in Kenya, the bulk of their workforce, over 90% are locals. We believe that even when you go into operations and maintenance, we are working with CRBC. They will be able to hire a lot of locals who have acquired skills during construction and those who already have skills from other sectors within the economy,” he said.
The new railway will benefit tourists and boost business.
“With this facility, you are able to move from Mombasa, through to Nairobi, you can go to our national parks, tour, and then move on to other locations,” said Maina.
