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Post by omundustrong on Nov 28, 2013 10:19:16 GMT 3
As i write this thread,the ground breaking ceremony for the Standard gauge Railway is taking place in Mombasa.This is a mammoth project with huge potential to open up the country and the East African region as a whole.The damage to roads due to heavy traffic that would otherwise be carried by rail will be allievated after completion of the project.
Investments in infrastructure such as rail call for huge outlay of cash and this is where the monkey of corruption comes in.The parliamentary committee on Transport has raised a red flag on the way the project has been procured to China Road and Bridge Corporation.The Coastal leaders are also saying that they need to be consulted before the project can get a go ahead from them.
My view is that oversight from the Transport committee is inorder to establish whether the Government to Government process was above board.However,the project is of huge importance to the country that whichever way after due audit of the process we have to implement it if we are to solve the incessant pressure on the roads to deliver heavy traffic that they are not designed to carry.
The benefits acruing from the project are going to be immense,however,we have to be on the look out for avenues in the project that may fuel corruption of magnitudes that pales in comparison to the Anglo-Leasings and Goldenbergs of this world.
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Post by jakaswanga on Nov 28, 2013 23:26:05 GMT 3
As i write this thread,the ground breaking ceremony for the Standard gauge Railway is taking place in Mombasa.This is a mammoth project with huge potential to open up the country and the East African region as a whole.The damage to roads due to heavy traffic that would otherwise be carried by rail will be allievated after completion of the project. Investments in infrastructure such as rail call for huge outlay of cash and this is where the monkey of corruption comes in.The parliamentary committee on Transport has raised a red flag on the way the project has been procured to China Road and Bridge Corporation.The Coastal leaders are also saying that they need to be consulted before the project can get a go ahead from them. My view is that oversight from the Transport committee is inorder to establish whether the Government to Government process was above board.However,the project is of huge importance to the country that whichever way after due audit of the process we have to implement it if we are to solve the incessant pressure on the roads to deliver heavy traffic that they are not designed to carry. The benefits acruing from the project are going to be immense,however,we have to be on the look out for avenues in the project that may fuel corruption of magnitudes that pales in comparison to the Anglo-Leasings and Goldenbergs of this world. Omundu-S, I for one support this railway! and it is even two short for me! I want Mombasa Lagos! Like the Dar-es-Salaam Loanda they are negotiating about! But I can not help chuckling a bit, because all these reasons given by Kamau [cab sec transport] and the two principals [Uhuruto] why the Rail will be so great, were also valid in the yester years. That is, the Railway has been around [The IBEACO built Uganda Railway] for over a century, and two decades into independence, we let it collapse and rot. We need to explain those circumstances before we jump to praise the NEW RAIL-LINE. Otherwise soon, like the old one, the new tracks will be overgrown with shrubs! Here is the great photo! www.nation.co.ke/news/No-EAC-country-is-being-isolated--Uhuru-says/-/1056/2092092/-/5wnxtz/-/index.htmlEven as Kenyatta sheepishly denies ''coalition of the willing'' excludes Tz, here is the other club! www.nation.co.ke/news/Tanzania--Burundi-and-DRC-agree-on-joint-projects/-/1056/2091524/-/x6004vz/-/index.htmlNice touch Ruto, the Nandi managed finally to kill off the colonial raiway close to a century later, under their King Daniel Arap Moi! Everybod supports this thing, it is just the corruption they draw a line at, dear William.
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Post by kasiaya on Nov 29, 2013 0:03:52 GMT 3
As i have read elsewhere ....."Financing, currently only from China, has so far been made for only the first 450km section from Mombasa to Nairobi, replacing the current single trainline with a high-speed standard gauge track, as well as building an additional line alongside......" www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/11/kenya-launches-mega-138bn-railway-project-201311281442720658.htmlwww.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25134276It is not clear where the funding of the project for the rest of the sections from Nairobi to Malaba will come from! Also, in my opinion, ~ $5Billion dollars for the project is much lower than what i had expected - i'm certain the final cost of this project will multiply dramatically at the time of its completion.
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Post by omundustrong on Nov 29, 2013 7:05:15 GMT 3
Jakaswanga,my senior,and Kasiaya,thanks for your input,the history of railways in Kenya is actually the history of Kenya,towns like Nairobi then Nyrobi,Kisumu then Kisumo owe their birth to the railway.Without the railway Kenya was just another bush,in the eyes of the colonisers.The resistance then was based on misconceptions about the intentions of the colonisers,resistance was experienced from The Akamba,the Kipsigis in Kipkelion and the Nandi.
As then so it is now some resistance is experienced even today,however,now issues of probity,isolation of Tanzania are coming up.My take is that we have to keep a keen watch on the project so that later we dont have a situation where people will be hauled to the courts to answer charges of impropriety.
The project however,is long overdue as Jakaswanga puts it.The Government has secured about 85% of the funding,the rest has to come from local resources.Since Uganda,Southern Sudan and Rwanda depend on Kenya for most of their imports their buy-in for the project is high and i think issues of capital for the project will not be a major problem.Incidentally the MPs who had been very vocal against the project were conspicuously quiet,maybe after being "SEEN".
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Post by omundustrong on Dec 2, 2013 10:24:28 GMT 3
Kenya launches $13.8bn China-built railway to boost trade
AFP Kenya launches $13.8bn China-built railway to boost trade Mombasa (Kenya) (AFP) - Kenya launched construction of a Chinese-funded $13.8 billion (10 billion euro) flagship railway project Thursday, hoping to dramatically increase trade and boost Kenya's position as a regional economic powerhouse.
The key transport link, to run from the busy port city of Mombasa inland to the highland capital Nairobi, is eventually hoped to extend onwards to Uganda, and then connect with proposed lines to Rwanda and South Sudan.
"What we are doing here today will most definitely transform the course of development not just for Kenya but the whole eastern African region," President Uhuru Kenyatta told crowds at the ground breaking ceremony he called a "historic milestone".
"As a result east Africa will become a competitive investment destination... a busy growing east Africa is good for us a country."
Kenyan media have enthusiastically hailed the project, which replaces dilapidated British colonial-era lines, as the region's largest infrastructure project for a century.
"Kenya is stepping forward... it will be a landmark project both for Kenya and east Africa," China's ambassador to Kenya Liu Guangyuan said at the ceremony.
Kenyatta thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping, praising his "great personal interest in the project and his government's immense support."
China has funded the project only for the first 450-kilometre (280-mile) section -- $5.2 billion (3.8 billion euros) -- from Mombasa to Nairobi.
Work on that section, by the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), is expected to be completed by 2017.
"Presently our region relies almost exclusively on road transport," Kenyatta said, adding he was looking forward to waving off "the first train to Kigali via Nairobi and Kampala, delivering the promise of prosperity for all our east African peoples."
Aimed to serve four nations
CRBC completed in August the first stage of an expansion to Mombasa's port, including a berth able to handle 50,000 tonne container ships.
According to plans, the new lines would see passenger journey times cut from the current 12 hours to around four, which is around half the current driving time on crowded and pot-holed roads.
Freight trains are planned to be able to cut the current 36-hour trip by rail to just eight, a major boost for regional landlocked nations, with planners claiming it will slash cargo transport costs by 60 percent.
However, the project has sparked controversy, with some Kenyan lawmakers criticising the awarding of the contracts and complaining the process was not transparent.
It has also rankled regional nations not included in the line, with Burundi's transport minister on Thursday announcing a raft of infrastructure plans with Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tanzania, currently building a new port at Bagamoyo aimed to surpass Mombasa in size, is also planning to add to its railways with lines to Burundi and beyond to DR Congo.
Britain's railway line from Mombasa to Kampala, cutting through thick bush and man-eating lion territory, was dubbed the "Lunatic Express" -- seen by many at the time as an impossible dream.
Nairobi, Kenya's capital, was founded as a railway station.
However, after years of minimal investment, less than half of the original 2,730 kilometres (1,700 miles) of line are operational. Services on the remaining tracks are infrequent and painfully slow.
"The standard gauge railway is the largest joint transport infrastructure project undertaken by the people of east Africa since the British colonial administration laid tracks for the Kenya-Uganda railway more than a century ago," Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper said.
Last year, Kenya launched the construction of a massive port, railway and refinery project in Lamu -- a $24.5 billion scheme aimed at connecting Ethiopia and oil-rich South Sudan.
Work has begun clearing sites to build the planned 32-berth port, near a UNESCO-listed Indian Ocean island.
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Post by omundustrong on Dec 2, 2013 10:25:21 GMT 3
This is what others are saying about the project.
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Post by jakaswanga on Dec 3, 2013 22:00:31 GMT 3
As i write this thread,the ground breaking ceremony for the Standard gauge Railway is taking place in Mombasa.This is a mammoth project with huge potential to open up the country and the East African region as a whole.The damage to roads due to heavy traffic that would otherwise be carried by rail will be allievated after completion of the project. Investments in infrastructure such as rail call for huge outlay of cash and this is where the monkey of corruption comes in.The parliamentary committee on Transport has raised a red flag on the way the project has been procured to China Road and Bridge Corporation. The Coastal leaders are also saying that they need to be consulted before the project can get a go ahead from them. My view is that oversight from t he Transport committee is inorder to establish whether the Government to Government process was above board. However,the project is of huge importance to the country that whichever way after due audit of the process we have to implement it if we are to solve the incessant pressure on the roads to deliver heavy traffic that they are not designed to carry. The benefits acruing from the project are going to be immense,however,we have to be on the look out for avenues in the project that may fuel corruption of magnitudes that pales in comparison to the Anglo-Leasings and Goldenbergs of this world. Strong Omundu, I do not want to be alarmist, but I get a bit nervous. Take a read at the following, an ponder some of these points, in the light of what you wrote above which I have highlighted in red. www.nation.co.ke/news/Ruto-questions-legality-of-railway-tender-/-/1056/2094214/-/v1qs5uz/-/index.html What does raised suspicion mean in plain Kenyan lingo? So Kenya suspended the legal requirement of Public Procurement Act which dictates competitive bidding. In other words China said: we do it my way, or find somebody else to do it your way! And because Kenya is the BEGGAR in the relationship, our autonomy [or national independence] is worth not a drop of musturbant cum! We have no choice. Imagine the implications of this chinese dictatorship if Kenya were to face sanctions from other majortrading partners! We would effectively suspend the whole constitution at China's whims! In plain lingo, what does recieving preferential treatment mean? They were bribed? I wonder whether president Kenyatta received preferential treatment too! ---Joseph Kabila of Congo is said to have got at one time a birthday present: a Lamborgini and a Ferrari! With Congo having no roads to acomodate the gas-power of those two toys, Kabila gave this Chinese company the tender to build him a road to race his rocket cars! No it was not a private road, just like the SGR will not be a private railway line! NB: This railway is an epoch-defining infrastructural investment. Uhuru Kenyatta must get it right from the start.
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Post by enigma on Dec 3, 2013 23:56:14 GMT 3
As i write this thread,the ground breaking ceremony for the Standard gauge Railway is taking place in Mombasa.This is a mammoth project with huge potential to open up the country and the East African region as a whole.The damage to roads due to heavy traffic that would otherwise be carried by rail will be allievated after completion of the project. Investments in infrastructure such as rail call for huge outlay of cash and this is where the monkey of corruption comes in.The parliamentary committee on Transport has raised a red flag on the way the project has been procured to China Road and Bridge Corporation.The Coastal leaders are also saying that they need to be consulted before the project can get a go ahead from them. My view is that oversight from the Transport committee is inorder to establish whether the Government to Government process was above board.However,the project is of huge importance to the country that whichever way after due audit of the process we have to implement it if we are to solve the incessant pressure on the roads to deliver heavy traffic that they are not designed to carry. The benefits acruing from the project are going to be immense,however,we have to be on the look out for avenues in the project that may fuel corruption of magnitudes that pales in comparison to the Anglo-Leasings and Goldenbergs of this world. China will fund it but Uhuru and Ruto's friends will get exclusive deals for Supplies, logistics and services. This is basically campaign money for 2017. That's why it has to be rammed through and PPA ignored. Think how much of the 1.2 Trillion they will pocket!
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Post by omundustrong on Dec 4, 2013 8:44:28 GMT 3
Jakaswanga and Dineo,i totally agree with you,and that is why we need to keep our ears to the ground so that eventually when the chickens come home to roost we wont be surprised,we all know what happened to the Government-to-Government procurement of BVR kits and who is left carrying the baby in the courts.Let us keep watching,and watch keenly the underlying issues driving the project.
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Post by omundustrong on Jan 6, 2014 15:18:17 GMT 3
Lest we forget,this project threatens to divide the Jubilee Government as to who ate what and who did not eat what!The other politicians are also latching on it and pointing fingers as to who has eaten whose goat!The Kenyan taxpayers goat.Let us keep our eyes and ears open so that we are not saddled with huge bills to pay while others smile all the way to Shanghai!
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Post by podp on Jan 6, 2014 20:07:22 GMT 3
Lest we forget,this project threatens to divide the Jubilee Government as to who ate what and who did not eat what!The other politicians are also latching on it and pointing fingers as to who has eaten whose goat!The Kenyan taxpayers goat.Let us keep our eyes and ears open so that we are not saddled with huge bills to pay while others smile all the way to Shanghai! when you consider our indictees, PORK and Deputy PORK the 'We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda' hauntingly comes to mind. This is a difficult and painful book to read, but not for the obvious reasons. The atrocities committed by the killers are brought to light in considerable detail, however Gourevitch does this in an almost semi-detached and dispassionate way. His real moral outrage seems to be reserved for the so-called "civilized" countries that could have stopped the genocide, but instead did nothing until it was too late ... and then compounded their foreign policy sins by aiding the Hutu murderers in refugee camps. www.amazon.com/Wish-Inform-Tomorrow-Killed-Families/dp/0312243359/ref=pd_sim_b_6sometimes when you reflect back to Goldenberg, Anglo-fleecing, and now the LAPPSET and railway you talk about one cannot help than see haemorrhage of $$$s akin to the blood of the genocide victims of Rwanda in 1994. the way forward is some dose of what Kagame is giving the Rwandese since he took over. Singapore has been promoted as a highly competitive, cutting edge economy where efficiency reigns. The city-state is ranked as one of the world’s most competitive, economically free and transparent countries and a world-class business venue. Singapore is also seen as a developed and wealthy society that has delivered a secure and affluent lifestyle for its citizens equal to anything in the West. www.amazon.com/The-Singapore-Miracle-Myth-Reality-ebook/dp/B00DPK9DUUthere is no way Kenya will emulate Singapore with the kind of leadership displayed by elites from either side, be it Jubilee of CORD. that implies that we may have to go the Indian way where some 350 M people are middle level while the vast majority are so poor that our poor are not that bad. try reading An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions www.amazon.com/An-Uncertain-Glory-India-Contradictions/dp/0691160791This book, a real eye opener, gives a totally different picture, ugly, sad, but true and accurate, of the other side of India - the poor and underprivileged, who are hungry, malnourished, illiterate and sick. It is shocking to see the huge disparity between the privileged and the rest. Indian media, in all TV channels recently ridiculed the Planning Commission's notion of poverty line (at Rs 32/- or 5 Cents in urban areas, and Rs 26/- or 4 Cents in rural areas) as the daily income. The entire noise and laughter was on how misplaced this calculation was, since Rs 32/- meant next to nothing for survival, leave alone `luxuries' like health care and education. The authors very rightly point out in this book, that what the entire debate grossly missed was the fact that even at the abysmal threshold of Rs 32/26/- per day, about 350 million or a third of the entire nation would still be classified as poor in the world's largest democracy.
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Post by omundu on Jan 7, 2014 21:51:05 GMT 3
I remember my GHC in high school where the text book had the story of the original railway through kenya's heartland. The construction price shot up so much by end of the project with also over 2500 local and imported indians dead, they eventually had to rename it the "lunatic express". Perhaps that could be a befitting name for this current attempt at repeating our colonial masters feat by the time the project is finished. But I digress.
Just a couple of quick ones on Mr Kamau's explanation to the risen bill:
- why doesn't the public have access to the signed contract between the government and the chinese contractor ? It is supposed to be an open document/tender ...
- the signed contract was apparently around 200 billion shillings but now the cost has risen. Was a newer contract signed ? How many contracts exist. Who came up with the latest Bills of quantities and what process was used to approve it ? Was the latest bills part of a new contract that was signed thus making the previous one obsolete ? That's why we need to see the documents, the paper trail people. Munaficha nini ?
- one of your reasons for the escalated costs was that we are going to have a tarmaced road running adjacent to the railway. Is it a service road (single lane) or a public road ? A yes or no answer won't wash. A public road is not feasible considering there is an existing mombasa road highway which is being upgraded or in the pipelines last I checked. It doesn't make sense. If it is a service road, it still won't make sense because where in the world do you find service roads running adjacent to the railway all along its length ? Don't you have them by the train stations or depots only ? Eehh mzee kamau ?
- then you have the nerve to say that we will have a 100 km viaduct along the tsavo stretch. That caught my breadth as if I had been hit in the diaphragm. The longest viaduct in europe is a mere 16 km (oresund bridge-copenhagen to malmo in sweden). How in hell, I thought, are we just throwing money away on a worthless venture such as the 100km viaduct ? Even the new oil monied middle easterners would laugh at the audacity.
Well, I will have you know, Mr Kamau, that the name 'viaducts' originates from the Roman 'aqueducts'. But, the Romans, even at the height of their most ostentatious display of classical architecture, designed and constructed the aqueducts at a height to enable gravity transport water from kilometres away, into their cities. They had to elevate the transport systems to ensure the water doesn't get contaminated or poisoned. The aesthetics, well, the aesthetics just came as an afterthought.
Well, that is until I read further and it was explained that NEMA requested several viaducts as the rail passes through the 140 kilometers of Tsavo.
But still, when my simple mind from Kanduyi ponders further on this explanation, more questions are raised: what parts exactly are these ? How many viaducts are we gonna have ? If the viaducts are not constructed over gorges and valleys then where exactly are they being constructed ? Do you know how many kilometres it will take to slope a railway line upwards over flat land to a desired elevation and then slope it downwards to level ground ? Where do we see that in the world ? (Someone show me a case study please) wouldn't it then be wiser and far cheaper to go round the sensitive areas and perhaps add another fifty kilometers or so ? Very bad engineering if it indeed is viaducts are the option they went for.
Last but definitely not least: if NEMA claims that we need viaducts in certain , perhaps migratory,perhaps red species areas; why is there an existing railway (for the past century) in that area. A railway you claim that the proposed railway will be running adjacent to ? If any effect has occured to the environment along the existing railway, then the effect has reached a plateau phase and the new railway will have negligible effects if any. My point is; what's the difference between one and two railway lines running parallel to each other ?
And we havnt even gone into the costs of procuring the locomotives,wagons and simulator in comparison to the ethiopian costs of similar stuff.
Miujiza haya.
I thus gracefully, end my rant.
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Post by omundustrong on Jan 8, 2014 6:54:32 GMT 3
Meanwhile the saga continues,this is how the Nation is following up on the story that threatens to be the biggest scam so far.With the entry of the The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission into the fray at least we can expect some light into the matter.
Graft team opens probe on rail deal
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission boss, Mr Mumo Matemu. The anti-corruption agency has started investigating the Sh1.2 trillion standard gauge railway contract after it received complaints that the deal could be Photo/FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP In Summary • The anti-graft agency becomes the fourth institution to declare an intention to investigate the tender for what could possibly be Kenya’s largest infrastructure project. • The Public Accounts Committee had also said it would investigate the tender award but chairman Ababu Namwamba told the Nation Tuesady the matter for now lay with PIC. • The parliamentary committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing had also expressed reservations on why the tender was awarded to a Chinese company. ADVERTISEMENT By JOHN NJAGI More by this Author The anti-corruption agency has started investigating the Sh1.2 trillion standard gauge railway contract after it received complaints that the deal could be dubious. (READ: Rail tender cartels rock Jubilee ) The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission boss, Mr Mumo Matemu, said there were complaints that the contract was procured corruptly. “We are seized of the matter after receiving complaints of a general nature which we want to put into context,” Mr Matemu said. The anti-graft agency becomes the fourth institution to declare an intention to investigate the tender for what could possibly be Kenya’s largest infrastructure project. Parliament’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) this week became the third House committee to get on the case. This sparked a furious reaction from the Transport, Public Works and Housing Committee, whose chairman, Mr Maina Kamanda, said there was nothing more to investigate because his team had done its work. “All we are waiting to do so that we can finalise our report is to call the Attorney General because of the areas in which he was involved. We want him to clarify his role,” Mr Kamanda said. The Starehe MP said the report would be ready for presentation in the House by February 11. The Transport committee was acting on a request for a statement made by Nyali MP Hezron Awiti and met Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau and Principal Secretary Nduva Muli. Mr Kamanda said the team could also consider inviting Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to explain the financial aspects of the project. The MP has in the past wondered why PIC would be in such a hurry to investigate the award of the tender. The Public Accounts Committee had also said it would investigate the tender award but chairman Ababu Namwamba told the Nation Tuesady the matter for now lay with PIC. Mr Namwamba said there would be no conflict between the Transport team and PIC but “it may be a very fine line between what PIC is doing and what the Transport committee is doing.” The Transport committee deals with administrative matters, he said, and if a problem emerges, it wouldn’t be possible that the committee would investigate a report it produced itself. “You know the primary oversight committees of Parliament are PIC and PAC. So what PIC is doing is not out of character provided that the work does not step into the administrative sphere that is the mandate of the Transport Committee,” said Mr Namwamba. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) only raised the alarm over the project and because it only investigates matters raised in reports by the Auditor-General either in the annual accounts or a special audit, could not handle the investigations. “PAC is very concerned about this whole matter because the reports we are receiving indicate that there could be serious improprieties in the tendering process in terms of the whole procurement not having been in accordance with the procurement laws, competition, openness, transparency and value for money,” he said. MPs critical of the tender have alleged that the cost of the tender was inflated as civil servants sought bribes to influence the award of the job to China Roads and Bridges Corporation. (READ:Four more MPs criticise standard gauge railway tender) “PAC merely did what we could which was to issue a warning and say that this matter better be clean and above board,” said Mr Namwamba. PIC chairman and Eldas MP Adan Keynan said his team would come up with a comprehensive report to “resolve the issue over tendering of Kenya’s second railway once and for all.” Mr Keynan said PIC’s investigations were prompted by a directive by the House Speaker before Parliament went on recess. The award of the contract to a Chinese firm raised eyebrows in some quarters with claims that the Sh1.2 trillion tender was inflated. Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula said Kenyans risked losing more than Sh400 billion following the award of the tender. Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter has also raised concerns over the award of the tender, saying due process was not followed and that some individuals in government might have been bribed. (READ: 34-year-old MP giving Jubilee sleepless nights) Deputy President William Ruto’s office had also expressed reservations on the award of the tender although he joined President Kenyatta during inauguration of the construction the railway in Mombasa. The parliamentary committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing had also expressed reservations on why the tender was awarded to a Chinese company. China will finance a better part of the cost to develop the line to connect Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, which is over 1,250km. China Road and Bridge Corporation is to undertake the project. Mr Muli has in the past said that the escalation of the cost was necessitated by the need to build infrastructure that will incur low maintenance cost and the Sh1.2 trillion is actually the total cost of the railway that will eventually terminate in Kigali, Rwanda, via Uganda.
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Post by omundustrong on Jan 8, 2014 7:05:03 GMT 3
My Bro from Kanduyi,yours is not a rant but well reasoned thought on what is and what isnt!Just a small correction,the attempted explanation was by the former MD KRC who was the architect of the whole project,who is now the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Transport,a case of conflict of Interest.The CS transport has alot of explanations to do on this one.When the dust eventually settles on this we can be sure some people will have shackles on their hands visiting the venerable CJ's corridors!Let the games begin.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jan 8, 2014 20:06:38 GMT 3
Omundu,
If there is no press conference convened by either the chairman or the CEO of the LAPSSET project, starring the chief engineer to answer the questions you have enumerated, then I do not see how we can seriously take ourselves [as a country] seriously! I am beginning to think the chairman of the organisation of Kenyan engineers [Engineers Guild] [if we have such] should weigh in on the technical details and feasibility specifications of some of these claims.
I am beginning to find it fishy, the absent voice of the organised Kenyan engineers in the debate! Unless they all abandoned the country and are busy working overseas!
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Post by omundustrong on Jan 9, 2014 7:25:50 GMT 3
The Nation has kept following up on the story. This is what the DP says about the project.
Jubilee defends rail cost, contract award
President Uhuru Kenyatta with Deputy President William Ruto (2nd right) and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho (right) during the launch of the standard gauge railway line at Changamwe Marshalling yard in Mombasa November 28, 2013. Ruto has defended the award of contract to build the new railway to a state-owned Chinese firm, saying the deal is clean and the government is assured the firm can do it. PHOTO | FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP In Summary • Officials at the Deputy President’s office had questioned the veracity of the deal before the project was commissioned in December 2013 but his latest statements indicate he is fully behind it. • The Chinese firm has experience in the construction of railways and lists, among its projects over the years, the construction of part of the 678.4-kilometre Datong-Xi’an railway in China. ADVERTISEMENT By JOHN NGIRACHU More by this Author Deputy President William Ruto has defended the award of contract to build the new railway to a state-owned Chinese firm, saying the deal is clean and the government is assured the firm can do it. Mr Ruto Wednesday said the politicians who have criticised the award of the job to China Road and Bridge Corporation did not have facts about the project, and were likely to have been influenced by bitter businessmen. Officials at the Deputy President’s office had questioned the veracity of the deal before the project was commissioned in December 2013 but his latest statements indicate he is fully behind it. “We will build the railway because it is a national project. We have done due diligence as a government. We cannot possibly put Sh320 billion on the line without thinking,” he told Citizen TV’s Cheche show. The Jubilee administration’s defence has been that the railway deal was a government-to-government agreement where “the President sat down with the President of China” and therefore not open to competitive tendering. The Chinese firm has experience in the construction of railways and lists, among its projects over the years, the construction of part of the 678.4-kilometre Datong-Xi’an railway in China. Working in more than 45 countries, the company is involved in the construction of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, airports and ports. It built the Northern and Eastern bypasses in Nairobi and is currently building the Southern Bypass. Mr Ruto said the new railway would have the capacity to increase Kenya’s Gross Development Product by between 1.8 and 2.5 percentage points. “We can take our GDP from five per cent to seven per cent just by making sure that we build the railway and it is working, and that, we intend to do,” he said, noting that the government had set itself the target of ensuring the line from Mombasa to Nairobi was completed by 2017. The Deputy President said the plan was to ensure that the line to Malaba was completed in the next seven years and then onward to Rwanda and South Sudan. Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter has been among the most vocal critics of the railway tender, with Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula alleging that more than Sh400 billion is likely to be lost in the deal. Mr Ruto, however, said Mr Keter did not have the facts “because he was a stooge of somebody.” The Deputy President spoke a day after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission said it would investigate the tender award after receiving claims that it was improper. It joins the Public Investments and the Transport committees of the National Assembly in looking into the matter. ORIGIN OF THE PROCESS Nominated Senator Beatrice Elachi told the Nation yesterday the inquiries should also involve the former Kenya Railways boss Nduva Muli, now the Transport Principal Secretary, as he would have a good idea about the origin of the process. “The Jubilee Government found this process going on and when PIC starts their job, they should ask when it started, who designed the railway and how they got the contract,” she said. Most complaints have centred on the cost of the railway, with comparisons made with a similar project in Ethiopia. Mr Ruto said the Kenyan line would cost $3.9 million per kilometre compared to $3.8 million in Ethiopia and $5.9 million in Uganda. The cost of the Kenyan one is higher than that in Ethiopia because it includes rolling stock, locomotives, workshops and other components
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Post by omundu on Jan 9, 2014 12:17:34 GMT 3
The Nation has kept following up on the story. This is what the DP says about the project. Jubilee defends rail cost, contract award President Uhuru Kenyatta with Deputy President William Ruto (2nd right) and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho (right) during the launch of the standard gauge railway line at Changamwe Marshalling yard in Mombasa November 28, 2013. Ruto has defended the award of contract to build the new railway to a state-owned Chinese firm, saying the deal is clean and the government is assured the firm can do it. PHOTO | FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP In Summary • Officials at the Deputy President’s office had questioned the veracity of the deal before the project was commissioned in December 2013 but his latest statements indicate he is fully behind it. • The Chinese firm has experience in the construction of railways and lists, among its projects over the years, the construction of part of the 678.4-kilometre Datong-Xi’an railway in China. ADVERTISEMENT By JOHN NGIRACHU More by this Author Deputy President William Ruto has defended the award of contract to build the new railway to a state-owned Chinese firm, saying the deal is clean and the government is assured the firm can do it. Mr Ruto Wednesday said the politicians who have criticised the award of the job to China Road and Bridge Corporation did not have facts about the project, and were likely to have been influenced by bitter businessmen. Officials at the Deputy President’s office had questioned the veracity of the deal before the project was commissioned in December 2013 but his latest statements indicate he is fully behind it. “We will build the railway because it is a national project. We have done due diligence as a government. We cannot possibly put Sh320 billion on the line without thinking,” he told Citizen TV’s Cheche show. The Jubilee administration’s defence has been that the railway deal was a government-to-government agreement where “the President sat down with the President of China” and therefore not open to competitive tendering. The Chinese firm has experience in the construction of railways and lists, among its projects over the years, the construction of part of the 678.4-kilometre Datong-Xi’an railway in China. Working in more than 45 countries, the company is involved in the construction of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, airports and ports. It built the Northern and Eastern bypasses in Nairobi and is currently building the Southern Bypass. Mr Ruto said the new railway would have the capacity to increase Kenya’s Gross Development Product by between 1.8 and 2.5 percentage points. “We can take our GDP from five per cent to seven per cent just by making sure that we build the railway and it is working, and that, we intend to do,” he said, noting that the government had set itself the target of ensuring the line from Mombasa to Nairobi was completed by 2017. The Deputy President said the plan was to ensure that the line to Malaba was completed in the next seven years and then onward to Rwanda and South Sudan. Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter has been among the most vocal critics of the railway tender, with Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula alleging that more than Sh400 billion is likely to be lost in the deal. Mr Ruto, however, said Mr Keter did not have the facts “because he was a stooge of somebody.”The Deputy President spoke a day after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission said it would investigate the tender award after receiving claims that it was improper. It joins the Public Investments and the Transport committees of the National Assembly in looking into the matter. ORIGIN OF THE PROCESS Nominated Senator Beatrice Elachi told the Nation yesterday the inquiries should also involve the former Kenya Railways boss Nduva Muli, now the Transport Principal Secretary, as he would have a good idea about the origin of the process. “The Jubilee Government found this process going on and when PIC starts their job, they should ask when it started, who designed the railway and how they got the contract,” she said. Most complaints have centred on the cost of the railway, with comparisons made with a similar project in Ethiopia. Mr Ruto said the Kenyan line would cost $3.9 million per kilometre compared to $3.8 million in Ethiopia and $5.9 million in Uganda. The cost of the Kenyan one is higher than that in Ethiopia because it includes rolling stock, locomotives, workshops and other components hehehe. Mr DP Ruto takes Kenyans for fools. There is no need to politicize things that dont need politicizing. Mr Keter and Other kenyans are complaining exactly because we dont have all the facts. They should just present all the facts to kenyans so that we scrutinize them instead of assuming. Fact: There is always feasibility studies (including Environmental Impact Assessments) done before a project commences and tenders awarded. In light of this, we are assuming NEMA was involved before the initial Shs 200 billion tender was awarded. Did they then do a turnabout and conduct another environmental impact assessment post tender award that included additions that escalated the cost ? Is that really possible ? And what stage did the public participation in the sensibilities (impact assessments) happen, as is supposed to ? He should give us the facts (both tender documents, if at all there were two) plus other studies so that we have all facts. Tumesoma bwana, we are beyond being talked to like villagers.
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Post by omundu on Jan 9, 2014 13:23:44 GMT 3
Omundu, If there is no press conference convened by either the chairman or the CEO of the LAPSSET project, starring the chief engineer to answer the questions you have enumerated, then I do not see how we can seriously take ourselves [as a country] seriously! I am beginning to think the chairman of the organisation of Kenyan engineers [Engineers Guild] [if we have such] should weigh in on the technical details and feasibility specifications of some of these claims. I am beginning to find it fishy, the absent voice of the organised Kenyan engineers in the debate! Unless they all abandoned the country and are busy working overseas! I was wondering the same. I hope they say something, but sometimes,in this environment, you raise your voice and they make sure you never get a Government contract within the borders. Tumbo mbele.
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Post by omundustrong on Jan 9, 2014 13:28:07 GMT 3
Omundu,lets keep asking the hard questions.
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Post by kamalet on Jan 9, 2014 14:05:14 GMT 3
Omundu, If there is no press conference convened by either the chairman or the CEO of the LAPSSET project, starring the chief engineer to answer the questions you have enumerated, then I do not see how we can seriously take ourselves [as a country] seriously! I am beginning to think the chairman of the organisation of Kenyan engineers [Engineers Guild] [if we have such] should weigh in on the technical details and feasibility specifications of some of these claims. I am beginning to find it fishy, the absent voice of the organised Kenyan engineers in the debate! Unless they all abandoned the country and are busy working overseas! I was wondering the same. I hope they say something, but sometimes,in this environment, you raise your voice and they make sure you never get a Government contract within the borders. Tumbo mbele. What should worry you more is the silence of the official opposition in this matter! The fact that it is being raised by internal rubble rouser's is no excuse for the opposition to remain silent! The biggest problem is that most people making noise do not have all the facts, but you would expect someone to invoke the right to information under the constitution which just shows how lazy we can be as Kenyans! But we can now sit and wait out the EACC and the parliamentary committee to come and give us their respective versions!
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Post by omundu on Jan 9, 2014 15:21:20 GMT 3
I was wondering the same. I hope they say something, but sometimes,in this environment, you raise your voice and they make sure you never get a Government contract within the borders. Tumbo mbele. What should worry you more is the silence of the official opposition in this matter! The fact that it is being raised by internal rubble rouser's is no excuse for the opposition to remain silent! The biggest problem is that most people making noise do not have all the facts, but you would expect someone to invoke the right to information under the constitution which just shows how lazy we can be as Kenyans! But we can now sit and wait out the EACC and the parliamentary committee to come and give us their respective versions! Very apt Kamale. The official opposition lethargy/complicity ? has been the most disappointing. I have recently become very disillusioned by them. It is only now that we are hearing of the opposition intending to establish a shadow cabinet. Months later, post the elections.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jan 9, 2014 20:51:21 GMT 3
Here is an interesting history, which gives an good insight into the background. lapssettracker.blogspot.nl/www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/11/kenya-port-lamu-idUSL5N0CX38D20130411Omundu of Kanduyi, note that that when it comes to destroying the DELICATE MARINE AND CHOKING OFF CORAL REEFS AND MANGROOVES, our NEMA, the enviromental agency that ordered the the SGR VIADUCT to grant wildebeests their migratory pleasures, had nothing to say! ---Creeps with no heart for fish stocks! 2. Did the development bank of of southern africa (DBSA) bite? or did they withdraw from [all phases of] the project? Would be great to read their qualified assessment if any! 3. This thing has been billed as a government to government [China to Kenya] financing agreement, so was the PPP idea [private public patnerships] wholly abandoned? and at which stage? PPP i presume would demand an open competitive tendering process. (Not the Ruto idea of Uhuru sat with Jinpin and they reached a gentlemanly agreement: we pay, China Roads&Bridges company gets it done!] 4. LAPSSET is an old project, and I deduce the GCG of Kibaki and Raila knows more about the project than Uhuruto. Uhuruto just inherited a rolling scam, and parasitically jumped on the bandwagon of loot! I suspect Prime Minister Joseph Kinyua too, knows a pile of classifieds about these things, and is probably the real rasputin behind the scenes. And KAMALET, I suspect it is the fact that Ambassador Francis Muthaura was the later-day architect of LAPSSET, and this Muthaura was the head of the civil service credited with having managed well the frosty --someone give me a tropical equivalent---- relationship between the two principals. I would conclude there is something Raila and Muthaura know about LAPSSET which they wouldn't want the rest of Kenyans to know too much about! [Like the oil scam of yonder, was it ''Triton'' or something?]
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Post by jakaswanga on Jan 9, 2014 20:59:59 GMT 3
I was wondering the same. I hope they say something, but sometimes,in this environment, you raise your voice and they make sure you never get a Government contract within the borders. Tumbo mbele. What should worry you more is the silence of the official opposition in this matter! The fact that it is being raised by internal rubble rouser's is no excuse for the opposition to remain silent! The biggest problem is that most people making noise do not have all the facts, but you would expect someone to invoke the right to information under the constitution which just shows how lazy we can be as Kenyans! But we can now sit and wait out the EACC and the parliamentary committee to come and give us their respective versions! Some of these deals --about the LAMU berths for instance, seem to have been concluded when Kibaki was president and Raila, his so-called co principal, was coordinator of cabinet activities! That Raila is now leader of the opposition, so, I presume, he can not turn around and condemn his earlier self in office!
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Post by omundustrong on Jan 17, 2014 7:06:29 GMT 3
More by this Author By Gitonga Marete
More by this Author Importers, clearing agents and other stakeholders in the Mombasa port Thursday reacted angrily to government plans to make the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) guarantee that up to one third of its total cargo volumes will be transported on the new railway line to be built by a Chinese firm.
Also opposing the plans were shipping companies, maritime experts and the Dockworkers Union, whose officials said they would oppose any move by the government to force KPA to provide 35 per cent cargo to the multi-billion shilling line.
UNACCEPTABLE Cargo importers through their umbrella body — the Shippers Council of East Africa (SCEA) — said it is the discretion of importers to decide how their cargo is to be transported.
“The method of transportation is singularly decided by importers without any influence from KPA or anybody else. Any move to force shippers to move their imports by rail is unacceptable,” the Council’s chief executive officer, Mr Gilbert Lang’at, said.
Captain John Odhach, a maritime expert and a former Kenya Ports Authority Merchant Shipping Superintendent, said the government plan goes against of the UN Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea. “The UN convention puts the onus of carrying cargo on their owners and not port authorities,” he said.
An agreement signed between KPA, the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and the project financiers — Export Import Bank — effectively hands control of the port business to the Chinese financier in what is referred to as Take/Pay agreement.
In the agreement dated November last year, KPA is compelled to provide 35 per cent cargo to be transported on the new railway as part of an undertaking that the government gave the bank, which is funding the Sh327 billion ($4 billion) project to the tune of Sh278 billion.
The government will contribute Sh50 billion. The National Treasury has allocated Sh23.24 billion in the current financial year and also set up the Railway Development Fund under which importers will pay 1.5 per cent of the value of all imports to finance the project.
IMPORTANT SECURITY
Transport Principal Secretary Nduva Muli has defended the deal, saying, the guarantee was an important security for the loan and will ensure the railway line can fund itself.
“The Take/Pay agreement with KPA and KRC is meant to guarantee loan repayments. Without committing cargo on the new rail, KRC would not be able to repay the loan,” Mr Muli, a former managing director of the railways corporation, said.
“The Standard Gauge Railway is meant to decongest the port of Mombasa and Kenyan roads. It is meant to be self-financing,” he said. “KPA by law can designate the point of picking cargo as it normally does with the Internal Container Depots and the 11 licensed Container Freight Stations (CFSs). We want to ensure proper maintenance and operation regime for the project”.
However, Car Importers Association of Kenya chairman Peter Otieno said it did not make sense for the government to commit cargo to a mode of transport that has not even started to operate.
“The decision on how goods get to their destination is arrived at based on a number of factors including rates. If the rates will be favourable then you expect the rail to be popular, but if it is more expensive, importers will not be willing to pay,” he said.
Container Freight Association of Kenya CEO Daniel Nzeki said container freight station owners were worried about the link between the port and their CFSs.
“Consideration has to be made on how the CFSs will be linked up with the port using the standard gauge track,” he said.
Maritime consultant Stanley Chai said it was not practical for KPA to guarantee the cargo, noting, the handler does not have any legal backing to effect the deal.
Dock Workers Union secretary general Simon Sang said the union had written to Labour ministry asking it to compel KPA to show union officials the agreement so that they can analyse its impact on workers.
Building of the railway is on-going with work at the Nairobi Railway Station in Embakasi and at Mtito Andei already under way. The project could be completed in the 2016/17 financial year.
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Post by omundustrong on Jan 17, 2014 7:49:59 GMT 3
By JOHN NGIRACHU More by this Author An independent private firm should have done a study to determine the cost of constructing the standard gauge railway line before the job was given to a Chinese firm, Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter has said.
The lawmaker told the Public Investments Committee he is opposed to the contract because China Road and Bridge Corporation did the feasibility study, designed the railway, determined its cost and was then handed the contract to build it.
This way, the MP told the first committee meeting on the matter, Kenyans will pay more than they should for “the largest infrastructure project in the country since independence”.
“I’m raising these concerns not because I don’t love the railway. I love the railway. It should have been built like yesterday. But we should save Kenyans’ money,” he told the committee chaired by Eldas MP Adan Keynan.
Mr Keter is the first person to appear before the committee, which officially begins its investigations on Monday.
He insisted that contrary to the Transport ministry’s assertions, this was no government-to-government deal since the Chinese firm had already signed a MoU before it went in search of funding from the China Exim Bank.
In the end, he said, President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto were misled before launching the project in Mombasa on November 28.
DOUBLE COST
“Someone must have misused their office. I see a lot of misadvise and misleading,” Mr Keter said.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has also questioned aspects of the contract that saw the cost go up from an initial Sh220 billion to Sh327 billion for the Mombasa-Nairobi phase.
In an analysis given to the House team, it said the cost of the contract increased after a team from Kenya Railways and China Road and Bridge Corporation revised it to allow the Chinese to supply locomotives, coaches and freight wagons.
“This led to an extra cost of Sh95 billion. It is not clear why the government would commit itself to buy rolling stock when the agreement for operations on the line is ‘open access’, where many operators will be allowed to operate in the freight business,” the Budget Office says.
After comparing the costs of building a similar railway in Ethiopia, the Budget Office concludes that the Kenya one will almost be double.
“The length of the line in Ethiopia is 656km while in Kenya it’s 485.303km at a cost of approximately $3 billion and $3.9 billion, respectively. The approximate cost per kilometre is approximately $4.57 million in Ethiopia and $8.04 million in Kenya,” it concludes.
The PBO document will form part of the inquiry but Mr Keter used the opportunity yesterday to state why he has been very vocal in his opposition to the project and gave a brief history of the relationship between CRBC and the government.
CRBC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government in 2009 and carried out a feasibility study of the railway project for free.
He insisted that contrary to the Transport ministry’s assertions, this was no government-to-government deal since CRBC had already signed the MoU before they went in search of funding from the China Exim Bank.
In the end, he said, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto were misled before heading to Mombasa for the launch of the project on November 28, 2013.
MISLEADING ADVICE
“Someone must have misused their office. I see a lot of misadvise and misleading,” said Mr Keter.
He will make a formal presentation to PIC next week under oath and is also expected to produce documents to support his case.
The meeting at Continental House yesterday also offered MPs on PIC an opportunity to comment on the jostling between their team and the Transport Committee over who ought to investigate the matter.
Asked by committee vice chairman Kimani Ichung’wa whether he would also appear before the Transport Committee, Mr Keter said that wouldn’t happen.
“I’m not willing to sit before that committee. The chairman has already said that I’m working on behalf of another contractor. He is biased,” said Mr Keter.
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