Days after getting trade deal with Uganda which many felt short changed, President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to travel to China next month hoping to secure Sh380 billion funding for the Naivasha-Kisumu standard gauge railway.
Our sources indicate that Uhuru will be in Beijing within the first two weeks of April.
The Transport PS Esther Koimett and acting Kenya Railways MD Philip Maingi have spent the past week holding talks with Chinese government officials about the loan.
This will be the first time Uhuru will be going to Beijing this year after a disappointing visit in September last year when Chinese Premier Xi Jinping refused to approve the loan.
The Chinese leader instead asked Uhuru to conduct a commercial viability study on the entire Mombasa-Kisumu railway project and secure a financing deal with Uganda.
This came to Kenya as a surprise considering the financer, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), had agreed to the plan a month before.
The planned China visit comes hot on heels of a two-day state visit by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to Mombasa to discuss bilateral ties with Kenya.
Analysts are of view that Museveni’s trip to Kenya was arranged by Uhuru keen to persuade him to back the project to enable Kenya to secure the much-needed funds to push the railway line to Kisumu from Naivasha.
Kenya is expected to complete the second phase of the project running from Nairobi to Naivasha by mid this year. It will cost $1.7 billion (Sh170 billion).
The first phase of the project from Mombasa to Nairobi was commissioned last year at $3.8 billion (Sh380 billion).
The Naivasha to Kisumu line is estimated to cost Kenya at least $3.6billion (Sh360 billion) before the country embarks on another 107km line connecting Kisumu to Malaba border with Uganda at an estimated $1.7 billion (Sh170 billion).
On Wednesday, the two heads of state held a joint press conference where Museveni renewed his decade-long commitment to co-finance the project with Kenya.
The two countries have been at loggerheads over the financing of the cross-border rail project, with China Exim Bank insisting that Kampala has to get Kenya’s commitment to building the section from Kisumu to Malaba before Uganda can secure funding for the line running from Kampala to the common border.
Last October, Uganda announced the suspension of its SGR plan and turned focus to revamping the old metre-gauge railway network, pending unresolved financing issues between Kenya and China.
China had also declined to approve Uganda’s loan request for its first phase of SGR from Malaba to Kampala. Museveni who had also attended the 2018 China-Africa summit hoped to secure $2.3 billion (Sh230 billion) for the phase.
Kampala accused Nairobi of sabotaging its effort to secure funding for the project. It argued that the latter had failed to commit to financing the remaining two SGR phases, that is, Naivasha to Kisumu and Kisumu to Malaba sections of the line.
On Thursday, Museveni became the first foreign head of state to ride the Madaraka Express from Mombasa to Nairobi, carrying with him lots of goodies in kind for his cooperation.
Kenya pledged to allocate land in Naivasha for Uganda to develop a dry port for its cargo ahead of the completion of the SGR phase two from Nairobi to Naivasha in June.
Speaking during a state banquet in Mombasa, Uhuru said the link of the dry port with SGR from Mombasa Port will create an efficient movement of goods between the two countries.