The Chinese are synonymous with the standard gauge railway in Kenya, a project billed the biggest in Kenya since the lunatic express was completed more than a century ago. However, the question is: what is the intention of China?
Recently, the Chinese threatened to stop the construction of the railway after president Uhuru banned the importation of fish from China. It seems that the deal Kenya signed was written in Chinese. Honestly, what’s so special about Chinese fish?
There was a joke that a Kenyan pilot flew a plane all the way to New York, yet the Chinese have never allowed us to steer the locomotive from Syokimau to Mombasa. It points to the controversy that surrounded the Chinese handling of Kenyan workers in the SGR – racism and injustice.
The Chinese subsequently responded by making the workers sign non-disclosure agreements. Methinks, the Chinese are not going anywhere, they are here to stay. We better get used to that.
Around the world, starting with Zambia, they’ve been unable to pay their loans and the Chinese have taken over key state installations, purportedly. In Sri Lanka, the Chinese have taken over port they helped construct.
On the Kenyan front, it has been argued previously that the money China is giving us never actually left China. The materials are from China, same as labour. Even the engines came from China.
It seems that China is on a quest to get colonies. Their bait is giving out loans to fund infrastructure, with the hope that the countries they extend the hand are unable to pay them so that they can take over this infrastructure. How else would you explain why they have not handed over the SGR, almost a year down the line?
What is even more worrying is the Chinese signs on wherever they touch. You see buildings constructed by Chinese with Chinese imprints. The SGR seems notorious, as we’ve been made to believe.
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