Kenya revives stalled China-backed railway after six-year halt

Kenya restarted a multibillion-dollar railway extension on Thursday after a six-year hiatus. President William Ruto told a crowd at a launch ceremony in the Rift Valley town of Narok, "It was the naysayers who said it is a railway to nowhere. We are just confirming to them that we had a plan. It ​was never a road to nowhere."

The new phase will be financed through revenue securitisation and built by a Chinese contractor. The railway’s first section, linking the port of Mombasa to Nairobi, was completed in 2017. China slashed funding for large African infrastructure projects under its Belt and Road Initiative, and the project stalled in the Rift Valley, more than 350 km short of the Ugandan border. Last year, Kenya and China renegotiated the terms of the loans ​for the first two phases to cut Nairobi’s annual repayments. Kenya is now using a railway development levy charged on cargo carried on the existing line, estimated to raise about 35 billion shillings ($270 million) annually, as seed money for the construction of new phases. China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is the main contractor for the new phase. In 2024, Beijing sought to reposition itself by pledging $50 billion in credit and investments to Africa over three years. Kenya and two Chinese firms are already building a $1.5 billion highway expansion under the ​new financing model.

With his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, Ruto will on Saturday launch ​the construction of the final rail line leg, linking Kisumu with the border town of Malaba.