Should the Kenyan government take over the running of the Standard Gauge Railway? Many Kenyans actually think so. This comes after shocking revelations were made of how Chinese officials colluded with their Kenya colleagues to defraud the SGR of billions of Shillings in a mega ticketing scandal.
This ticketing scam has been termed as the greatest ever in the history of the Country.
Multiple sources have confirmed that the ticketing scam, which involves manipulating the complex booking system operated by CRBC staff to split the ticket revenues between the Chinese railway operator and the cartel of insiders, has been going on for a long time.
According to an insider, one aspect of the scheme under investigation involves creating refunds for tickets already issued to passengers on board for each of the four trips and channelling the refunds elsewhere.
Kenya Railways officials are said to have raised the red flag over an unusually high number of refunds, triggering an investigation that is likely to unearth millions of shillings in lost revenue since President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the service on June 1, 2017.
Intense monitoring revealed that the passengers who had allegedly been refunded were indeed inside the train ready to travel.
It is not clear how long the fraud had been run but well-placed sources within the ticketing docket said there are indications of up to Sh1 million per day on all trips having been stolen.
Responding to enquiries, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) which sells about 4,000 tickets per day through a subsidiary firm Africa Star Railway Operations Company, admitted to have been alerted about an anomaly on the refunds with some of its officials having been “questioned” over the same.
“There is an average six percent of refunds per day on tickets sold. We have been informed by the Kenya police of a potential discrepancy involving a few refunded tickets. The police have questioned a few of our officials and we are fully co-operating in the investigations,” Mr Dai Yunjie, the firm’s spokesperson, said.
Insiders within the ticketing office are said to be in collusion with a major travel agent offering bulk booking for tourists who block seats immediately the online system opens and resell them at double or triple the prices to other stranded agents or individuals.
Police sources confirmed the sale of tickets outside the nine designated stations at inflated prices has been an ongoing scam and many suspects have been arrested in the past.
The Chinese operators are reportedly paid at least Sh1 billion per month to operate the SGR service besides the loan repayments and the latest revelations will turn the spotlight back to SGR, whose Phase 2 is under construction.
What measures should the Kenyan government take to curb this ticketing menace?