Kenyans are hungry and don’t care much about the SGR contract leaking or not.
This is why no one is still talking about it, and most media houses shared the Portable Digital Formats (PDFs) for everyone to download and read on their own.
However, having no interest in politics or how your government runs don’t mean that your government doesn’t have an interest in you.
The government’s policies and blunders affect you bigly.
Remember, the high cost of living is occasioned by poor policies of the previous regime, factories and businesses closed, as a result, the people left to pay taxes shrined and now the cost of living is high as the state grapples with how it can run.
The construction of the SGR is one of the big events that cost you as a Kenya. It plunged the country into hardships.
Afristar
The Africa Star Railway Operations Company Limited (Afristar), employs Chinese nationals in plum positions. Kenyans only get the dregs.
The treatment of Kenyans that work at Afristar is nothing to write home about.
The company, with deceptive PR, sends Kenyan students to study. They are kept at school for longer to be showcased at every meeting that they are going to take over from staff of Chinese origin, but year after year, nothing happens. Instead, Afristar imports Chinese to take care of business.
This article will be a simple explanation of the complex language and the heavy pages of the recently released SGR contract (well, at least part of it).
As of now, you are aware that apart from arm-twisting Kenya to source materials and staff for the construction of the railway line from China, the Communist dictatorship went ahead to indicate that any dispute resolution must be handled in Beijing.
In 2020, Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto wrote to govt to end the lopsided contract between KRC and Afristar which he described as having no value to Kenyans.
“Given that we have already committed our country to repaying the Chinese loans extended to fund the construction of the railway, there is no need to keep the country ensnared in an abusive marriage where Kenyans are collectively and continuously fleeced in a bad deal entered years gone by. Taking steps to tame the greed shown by the Africa Star Railways, the operator of the SGR business, can only be described as noble considering that the Chinese firm has had little regard for Kenya’s interest in the project undertaken by its parent firm, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC).” Kennedy Ogeto wrote.
The contract between KRC and Afristar is supposed to be reviewed in 2022.
In 2022, William Ruto has come to power and made good his promise to reveal the contract.
Kenyans are not supposed that the Mombasa Port and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) operations will fall under the Chinese soon, in case of a default.
That said, one should not forget that govt recently came out to deny reports that it has failed to honour its debt obligations.
“Kenya has never defaulted on settlement of its debt service obligation to any of its creditors, nor has any creditor filed or reported any claim of default on debt service payments on facilities extended to the government of Kenya. All public debts, including the SGR, are paid from the Consolidated Fund in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act 2012. Debt service is a first charge in the fund and takes precedence over other forms of expenditure,” the statement by former National Treasury CS Ukur Yatani read in part.
A few things to note
In the unreleased contract agreement between the government of Kenya and China, Section 1: The Contract Agreement and Seller’s Power of Attorney. The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) mentions the SGR as a rail network planned to run from the port of Mombasa to the Malaba border with a branch line to Kisumu city.
Why didn’t the SGR, then costing a few billion plan to go that far yet the one that had its cost inflated three times only reached Nairobi and Kenya had to borrow a second loan to have a line reach Naivasha, where a private dry port is located?
Secondly, for formality, the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics had to confirm Construction Price Index as per Kenyan Engineers, yet it was the Chinese Govt’s National Bureau of Statistics – China Economic Monitoring & Analysis Center (CEMAC) Price Indices that was used.
At some point, the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) protested that the prices for certain items were quoted too high and thus sought a review.
It appears that the signatories, some of them, were flower girls, couldn’t move against the big dragon as it shafted Kenyans big time.
It still does, as taxpayers are the ones to pick the bill as Chinese nationals, both past and new live in unfettered luxury.
Hey, before I forget, did the stealing of Sh1million daily from SGR ticket sales really stop?
ONE – Preferential buyer credit loan agreement
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Open in new tab TWO – Mombasa – Nairobi SGR buyer credit loan agreement
Loading...THREE – Nairobi – Naivasha SGR buyer credit loan agreement
Loading...Next Article, Scanned images of the 44 pages of pure theft, (not seen it before. not in Murkomen’s revelations) you’ll have time to do your calculations.
