Confusion over number of Chinese workers under SGR

Chinese Standard Gauge Railway workers:  The government and their employer give different figures of their population. [File, Standard]

The mystery surrounding the number of Chinese directly employed by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) continued to deepen yesterday.

Figures given by the Government are different from those given by the Chinese firm contracted to manage SGR.

In a statement released by China Roads and Bridges Corporation (CRBC) yesterday, the firm asserted that 2,136 Chinese are employed by SGR.

The Chinese work jointly with 13,482 Kenyans.

“The Kenyan employees account for 86 per cent of the total workforce. We would also like to clarify that after the construction of the SGR phase 1 (Nairobi-Mombasa), most of the Chinese employees were not transferred to Phase 2A, instead they went back to China and only 86 Chinese from the previous construction team were left behind to handle any issues relating to the SGR Phase 1 construction,” said CRBC’s in a statement.

The firm's numbers are different from those tabled in Parliament by Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia on Tuesday.

According to Dr Macharia, there are 841 Chinese working under the SGR and 2,679 Kenyans 

“Of the 2,679 local staff, 1,635 are regular staff. CRBC has outsourced 650 security staff. We also have 394 on pre-employment training at the Railway Training Institute,” Macharia told Parliament’s Departmental Committee on Transport.

Macharia was responding to reports citing CRBC’s database that indicated that there are about 5,000 Chinese employed by SGR.

Macharia explained that according to the contract between the Chinese firm and the Government, localisation of SGR jobs at all levels would be done gradually.

According to the Cabinet secretary, 76 per cent of workers currently under SGR were Kenyans.