Tag: Standard Gauge Railway
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New Report Kills off the Mombasa Port Seizure Conspiracy Theory
Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway is now arguably the most controversial Chinese project in Africa, due to runaway rumors that debt from the notoriously opaque agreement will lead to the seizure of the port of Mombasa by Chinese banks. This controversy prompted Professor Deborah ...
Fears that China Will Seize Mombasa Port Unfounded: Upcoming Report
Throughout the last two years, Kenya has been rattled by reports that its debt to China for the troubled Standard Gauge Railway could lead to the seizure of the Port of Mombasa. Since then this story and the other ‘debt trap’ narratives like it have largely been debunked.
Kenyan Professor Explains Why China, Not the West, Became Nairobi’s Creditor of Choice
When Kenya embarked on its national infrastructure development agenda back in the early 2000s, policymakers didn't have a lot of options when it came to financing. Traditional lenders weren't interested and the cost of borrowing from banks was too expensive. Enter ...
Kenya’s Struggles to Repay China Exim Bank Loan Hint at Wider Troubles
Kenya is struggling to make payments on a $156.7 million Chinese Exim Bank loan that financed Nairobi’s Southern Bypass road. The country’s auditor general, Nancy Gathungu says Kenya now owes the Chinese state bank $31.3 million in delayed payments for the period up to 2021. Kenya’s ...
China Donates Surveillance System and Vehicles to Help Protect Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway
China's Ambassador to Kenya, Zhou Pingjiang, used a ceremonial outsized key to mark the opening of a new Chinese-financed security surveillance center for the Standard Gauge Railway. It was not specified what kind of surveillance technology and from what manufacturer was ...
China’s Relatively Small Share of Kenya’s Total Public Debt
Kenya's total public debt now stands at $72.2 billion with $6.92 billion or just 9% owed to Chinese creditors, according to new figures from the Treasury in Nairobi. When measured against Kenya's total external, China's share ...
It Can Be Hard to Tell If Kenya Is Managing Its Debts Well or If It’s In Danger of Debt Distress… Or Both
Confusing, even contradictory messages have been coming out over the past week about Kenya's debt sustainability. On the one hand, the Treasury is reporting that debt servicing obligations have fallen by $634 million, including to the China Exim Bank, due to deferrals and repayments ...
Kenya’s Parliament Launches Inquiry Into Chinese Contracts
The months-long dispute over the transparency of Chinese infrastructure contracts in Kenya intensified on Monday when the parliament launched an official inquiry to identify "directors and/or representatives" involved in those deals. Parliamentary opponents of President Uhuru Kenyatta, led by National Assembly ...
Kenya’s SGR Scandal Isn’t Going Away
This week saw the announcement that the United Kingdom’s international development investment arm, the CDC Group, will invest $1 billion in Kenyan infrastructure. This will include funding a new rail transit hub in Nairobi. It’s interesting that the UK is leaning into ...
Citing National Security, Kenya (Again) Refuses to Release SGR Contracts With China
Kenya's transportation minister Joseph Njoroge reaffirmed the government's longstanding refusal to make public the $3.9 billion contract with the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to build the Standard Gauge Railway. Njoroge's cited a host of reasons for rejecting the ...
China’s Share of Kenya’s Total Debt Shrinks as Borrowing Surges
Kenya's Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) is forecasting the country's total public debt will reach $78 billion this June and $86 billion by the same time in 2023. Meantime, China's share of the country's debts, estimated at around $6.5 billion, ...
Kenya Caught in a Potentially Dangerous Loan Repayment Cycle Due to Its SGR Debts to China
There's growing concern that the depreciating value of the Kenyan currency is tied to the country's mounting debt servicing costs to Chinese creditors. Back in July, the Kenyan Treasury began repaying the loans used to build the Standard Gauge Railway after the China Exim Bank refused the ...