Passengers boarding the SGR train in Nairobi. [Photo/ kenyannews.co.ke]
Chinese investors working on the SGR project fairly responded to local concerns, a study by US-based researchers has revealed.
The report of the study published by the Washington-based China Africa Research Initiative says officials of the Asian country’s Chinese Road and Bridge Corporation, the builder of the $3.8 billion railway line “made a visible effort to set up mechanisms to help them engage with local communities and address their concerns.”China Africa Research Initiative is affiliated to the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.The SGR investors, the report says, should not be looked at as “neo-colonial predators.”The Chinese company hired liaison officers and established a vocational training facility.The report, however, does not pamper the Kenyan government blaming it alongside the country’s political culture for the problems and conflicts that emanated during the building of the Nairobi-Mombasa rail line.“But the company has demonstrated less flexibility on the main contract provisions, explained in part by the Kenyan government’s pressure to finish construction on time and within budget,” says the report.Government decisions on the planning, funding and constructing of the SGR “were made with little concern for economic benefits or for maintaining accountability to the public at large.”“In most places, the ethnic and neo-patrimonial political culture is behind the controversies and the occasional violence,” the report further states.“This is compounded by a deeply entrenched problem of corruption, rent-seeking and nepotism.”