China-built SGR offers efficient, affordable mobility
Nairobi National Park Super Major Bridge along the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is equipped with noise deflectors in Nairobi, Kenya, in July. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
NAIROBI－As a veteran insurance sales agent, Farahana Mghoi used to spend seven hours on matatus, the public service vehicles in Kenya, from her hometown of Voi in southeastern Kenya to Nairobi, to meet a potential client. It was both slow and tiresome.
Since 2018, time spent on the 328-kilometer journey has been reduced to four hours thanks to the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) passenger train service launched in May 2017.
Now our people are able to run the operations, to drive their locomotives, to carry on with signal work, to repair and maintain our wagons.
Philip Mainga, managing director of Kenya Railways Corp
Financed mainly by China and constructed by China Road and Bridge Corp, the 480-km railway connecting Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, and Kenya's capital city of Nairobi is a flagship project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, and is Kenya's largest infrastructure project since its independence in 1963.
Mghoi said the efficient, reliable and affordable mobility, which the SGR has always guaranteed her whenever she travels to meet new clients, has boosted her career.
The SGR has been "an extremely good experience in the last few years", James Macharia, Kenya's Cabinet secretary for transport, infrastructure, housing and urban development, told Xinhua News Agency. "We can expect a lot more profitable operations going forward."
As a strategic infrastructure project, the SGR is aiding the realization of Kenya's two flagship socioeconomic transformation blueprints－Vision 2030 and the Big Four Agenda, said Philip Mainga, managing director of Kenya Railways Corp.
Less road time, more opportunities
With the SGR, Mghoi is able to reach her destinations on time and negotiate potential business opportunities with ease. She said the punctuality has helped her cement trust and confidence with her clients.
Mghoi belongs to the growing Kenyan skilled labor force, entrepreneurs and tourists who have embraced the SGR service.
The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR and the additional 120-km Nairobi-Naivasha SGR have also facilitated the hauling of bulk cargo to the hinterlands.
With the SGR freight service, it takes eight hours to transport bulk cargo like raw materials from Mombasa Port to an inland container depot in Nairobi, as opposed to around two days using the century-old Meter Gauge Railway constructed by British colonists, said Edward Opiyo, terminal manager at Nairobi Freight Terminals Ltd, a logistics firm.
As logistics firms are now able to transport bulk cargo in a speedy, cheaper, efficient and environmentally-friendly manner, they have built cordial relationships with major clients, Opiyo said.
Transit hours and the cost of hauling bulk cargo to neighboring landlocked countries have also been reduced, injecting fresh vitality into regional supply chains, he said.
The SGR has enhanced Kenya's trade with neighboring countries and offers an economic lifeline to member states of the East African community, said Mainga.
In the past five years, the modern railway has transported 20 million metric tons of cargo and about 8 million passengers, elevating Kenya's status as a regional manufacturing, trade and logistics hub, he noted.
"I must say we are lucky. We are doing more exports and diversification of goods than before. We are seeing a dynamic change due to what the SGR is doing in terms of exports," he said.
The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is projected to contribute 2-3 percent to Kenya's GDP, said Mainga, adding that the railway has become a dominant player in Kenya's pursuit of inclusive growth, as it has revolutionized the transportation of passengers and bulk cargo, stimulated commerce and investments and fostered job creation for local youth.
An attendant (second right) talks with passengers on a train running along the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR in July. (DONG JIANGHUI / XINHUA)
Mutual understanding, respect, trust
Mainga said the SGR is also benefiting the local people as skills transfer has reached 80-90 percent.
"Now our people are able to run the operations, to drive their locomotives, to carry on with signal work, to repair and maintain our wagons," he said.
Recruited in 2017 by SGR operator Africa Star Railway Operation Company (Afristar), Harrison Kinyanjui, a 26-year-old economics major, has received rigorous training on railway operations and management from Chinese mentors, and progressed quickly to become the first Kenyan to work at the SGR dispatch center in Nairobi.
Kinyanjui, the assistant superintendent of the center, said the work is to organize train operations using a centralized traffic control system in the center, which is "the brain and heart for all SGR train operations".
"The Chinese experts have taught us very well. They now have the confidence to leave us to work independently. We are very, very proud that we came here not knowing anything about train dispatching, but we are now very competent," he said.
"You see the Kenyan government and the Chinese government work together. We want to thank both governments for the support they have given us," said Mainga.
As Afristar has been committed to prioritizing safe operations, boosting the movement of passengers and goods and enhancing localization, the SGR's socioeconomic outcomes have gained trust and recognition by the Kenyan government and the people, Li Jiuping, general manager of Afristar, told Xinhua.
"To create high-performing Sino-Kenyan teams, Afristar fosters cross-cultural working relationships and promotes mutual understanding, respect and trust," Li said.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was the first visiting head of state to travel by Kenya's SGR in March 2019. He said the enhanced efficiency in handling cargo has been beneficial to the economies of both Kenya and Uganda, and to other countries that depend on Mombasa Port for imports and exports, including Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Within the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the SGR is among many China-Kenya infrastructure projects which are leading Sino-Africa cooperation, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Zhou Pingjian told Xinhua.
Eco-protection a priority
Before the SGR project started, there had been fears that the railway could harm biodiversity, as it would snake through the Tsavo National Park, Kenya's oldest and largest wildlife sanctuary, home to iconic species such as elephants, giraffes and zebras.
To ensure their safety, the SGR contractor built electric fences on both sides of the track, and wide underpasses at short intervals to facilitate their movement.
Besides wildlife, mangrove forests are also well protected. Ali Mohamed, a 44-year-old resident of a serene village overlooking a mangrove swamp on the northwestern edges of Mombasa, said that besides regulating coastal weather, the installation of overpasses and culverts has ensured that there was minimal disturbance to the mangrove forest, which is an important fish breeding site.
"I visited the SGR when its construction started and witnessed the restoration of the previously degraded sections of the mangrove forest in our locality," said Mohamed, also founder of Bidii Creek Conservancy, a Mombasa-based green lobby.
The SGR has provided best practices on blending conservation with infrastructure development, he said.
Five years since its launch, the SGR has earned accolades from local officials and conservationists for prioritizing ecological protection along its corridor.
Nancy Githaiga, country director for Kenya at the Nairobi-based African Wildlife Foundation, said wildlife protection measures initiated by the SGR contractor should inform future efforts to develop mega-infrastructure projects while safeguarding the integrity of biodiversity hot spots in Kenya.
Green ethos has been placed at the center of SGR operations, bringing benefits to local communities in terms of clean air and tranquil landscapes, said Mainga.
The design and execution of the project adheres to local environmental protection laws, ensuring a healthy relationship between the contractor and local communities, said Cosmas Makewa, station master at the Mombasa SGR Terminus.
Unlike trucks, SGR trains plying along the corridor have not been emitting smoke into the atmosphere, boosting Kenya's quest for improved air quality, said Makewa.
The SGR project highlighted the viability of China's vision of an ecological civilization, according to Leopold Omondi, a campaigner with the Nairobi-based green lobby Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.