THE Chinese premier Li Keqiang and the president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta signed an agreement on May 11 for the construction of a 609km standard-gauge railway linking the port city of Mombasa to the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
KENYA's president Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the groundbreaking of a 500km standard-gauge railway linking the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the capital, Nairobi on November 28.
KENYA's Ministry of Finance has announced it will release an initial $US 252.8m towards the construction of a double-track standard-gauge line from the port of Mombasa to the Kenya/Uganda border town of Malaba with a branch to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.
RIFT Valley Railways (RVR), the concessionaire operating the 2352km Kenya-Uganda metre-gauge railway, has completed a 10-month project to repair a 73km stretch of the 530km Mombasa – Nairobi main line. Nevertheless, the Kenyan government is dissatisfied with RVR's performance.
KENYA's president, Mr Mwai Kibaki, officially opened a $US 4.7m 2.3km extension of the Nairobi – Embakasi line to Syokimau on November 14, which is said to be the first new station built in Kenya for 80 years.
KENYA Railway Corporation (KRC) has revived an international tender for a design and build turnkey project for a 7km commuter line in Nairobi after it was suspended in the second quarter when Kenya put on hold a planned $US 200m infrastructure bond.
THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has provided $US 500m to the East African Community (EAC), which covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, to roll out projects under its Railway Master Plan starting this year.
THE World Bank has approved $US 300 million in funding for the Kenya's National Urban Transport Improvement Project (Nutrip), which includes plans to develop commuter rail services in Nairobi, Mombasa and the Kisumu region, as well as bus and highway construction projects.