Kenya chokes on hefty infrastructure debts to China but are the projects viable?

Some of the 32 standard gauge railway (SGR) line passenger locomotive wagons and engines leave Mombasa West Railway Station for Nairobi on February 2. (Photo: Gideon Maundu/Standard)

The admission that the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) will not repay its own loans and will require taxpayers to subsidise it to the tune of Sh15 billion is a damning verdict on the feasibility of Kenya’s biggest infrastructure project.

The line has to be extended to Uganda if it is to reap any returns, which means Kenya will have to sink in even more resources in the project in both expansion and subsidies in coming years.