Speed up railway, firm told

President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to put pressure on a French firm to complete a commuter rail in Nairobi.

The rail will connect Nairobi Central Station to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport via Eastlands.

A French consortium is currently conducting an implementation study on the rail project, but President Kenyatta complained it had taken too long to break ground.

“Lecture them to finish the project in two years and not ten,” Uhuru told Macron.

At the same time, President Macron announced that projects worth 3 billion Euros between Kenya and France would be approved.

President Kenyatta said that upon completion, the line would serve 500,000 commuters daily.

“Our target is to have 500,000 urban commuters moving freely daily within the next 12 months. This number will grow to over a million commuters daily within the next five years,” he said.

Macron said he understood that Kenyans were “impatient” and promised that the project would be completed by 2021.

“By the end of 2021 this new connection will be possible,” he said.

Macron said French firms were well-equipped to undertake the rail project due to their experience adding that they would offer both software and hardware to the project.

He promised to work with Kenya to provide “mobility solutions” for Nairobi. Both said trade between the two countries would be “win-win.”