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Kenya Wants to Stretch Rail Loan Repayment Window to 50 Years

by Cobus van Staden
Kenyan lawmakers are hoping China will consider a debt repayment extension to service the remaining $3.3 billion that was borrowed to build the Standard Gauge Railway. Simon Mania/AFP

Kenya hopes to renegotiate the loan for its Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway to be repayable over fifty years, the country’s incoming Transport Secretary, Kipchumba Murkomen, said during his confirmation hearing this week. 

“We are choked by loans,” he said and argued a longer repayment window will allow the government to bolster broader economic growth.

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