How elements of 'deep state' are embedded in the parastatal sector

Police officers keep vigil at Kenya Railways station in Nairobi. The presidential taskforce on parastatal reforms found that the Kenya Railways Corporation was a shell of its former self. [Photo: File, Standard]

It is an open secret that state corporations are a crucial form of patronage, a conduit through which votes are bought, political support marshalled, tenders given, and ‘entrepreneurs’ built up in this country.

The recently launched Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) heralded the final, last breath of the 100-year old metre gauge railway, which had been slowly dying for decades.