Why Kenya has surrendered key transport corridor to China

Chinese workers at the entrance of the railway tunnel at Ngong Kajiado County, on September 25, 2018. [File, Standard] All indications suggest that a Chinese firm will be involved in upgrading the Rironi-Mau Summit Road, which will further solidify China's presence in the Northern Transport Corridor. The corridor is the key logistics artery that facilitates movement from Africa's eastern seaboard through Kenya to numerous landlocked countries in the region. China's heavy presence is already seen in the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), which the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) built and now operates through its subsidiary Africa Star Railway Operations Company (Afristar). The Kenya Railways Corporation's (KRC) takeover of the railway's operations has been postponed multiple times, leaving control firmly in Chinese hands. CRBC also built the Nairobi Expressway, the 27.5-kilometre tolled road that cuts through Nairobi and is operated by its affiliate, Moja Expressway. The project, delivered through the public-private partnership (PPP) model, will be operated by the company for about three decades, during which it will continue charging users to meet operational and maintenance costs as well as recoup its investments in the road. The expressway and the railway are key components of the Northern Transport Corridor, which also includes major roads like Mombasa Road, Uhuru Highway, Waiyaki Way and other recently built bypasses. In its plan to upgrade the 175-kilometre Rironi-Mau Summit Road, the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) has received two privately initiated proposals, one from a consortium of CRBC Kenya and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and a second one from Shandong Hi Speed Road and Bridge International Engineering Co. The two were already under evaluation when Kenha, in July this year, said it had received a third proposal by Multiplex Partners, a South African firm, which is also under review. The Jubilee administration had contracted a consortium of French firms to develop the road through the PPP model. The consortium would operate and maintain the road for three decades, using tolls to recoup its investment and cover maintenance costs. The Kenya Kwanza regime, however, cancelled the contract with the French consortium, Rift Valley Highway, citing concerns over high toll fees and unfavourable terms. Kenya paid the French firms a Sh6 billion cancellation fee. The government is also seeking funding to complete the SGR from Naivasha to Western Kenya, with China being the likely candidate to finance the project. Other than Kenya, other countries along the northern transport corridor, including Uganda, DR Congo, Rwanda and South Sudan, have to an extent had talks with China on financing of railways in their respective countries, but also connected to their neighbouring countries. "The crafty takeover of Kenya's most valued public assets by China has unfolded under the guise of 'upgrades'," said Motorists Association of Kenya in a social media post last week, adding that while Kenyan leaders have been persuaded that these deals will improve the national infrastructure, all they have done is give other countries hold on Kenyan infrastructure for years to come. "What could have been carefully planned, phased upgrades - done at Kenya's own pace and safeguarding national dignity - have instead become a conduit for foreign dominance." The lobby noted that the decisions that the government has made in accepting this "dominance" will have far-reaching implications in the coming years. It noted that Mombasa Road, for instance, has been robbed of the space and opportunity to become an integrated transport corridor. The Transport Ministry had planned to include a Bus Rapid Transit lane and other amenities that would have come in handy as the number of road users swells. "Mombasa road... has been transformed into a concrete jungle of impersonal pillars and elitist expressways, stripping it of the potential it could have held. Instead of a holistic upgrade that included a light rail, Bus Rapid Transit Lanes, express car lanes, pedestrian and pedal cycle paths and a green belt to harmonise with the environment, China has prioritised long-term control over functional urban planning," said the Association. "Our gateway to JKIA and the port, crucial arteries of International commerce have been compromised and now the same foreign interests are eyeing corridors like Rironi, Nakuru, Mau Summit and Malaba... threatening the sovereignty and dignity of our nation's infrastructure for decades to come." The French firms that were to build the Rironi-Mau Summit Road, as well as the US-backed Mombasa-Nairobi Expressway, were partly expected to check Chinese influence on the corridor. With the French out of the picture, it is to be seen whether Everstrong Capital - the firm building what is now branded as Usahihi Expressway - will challenge China's dominance on the corridor. Everstrong has already been off to a faltering start after Kenha rejected its proposal in July, although the highways authority said the firm could restructure and resubmit the proposal for fresh consideration. Peter Murima, chairman of the motorists association, told Financial Standard that what is unfolding on the Northern Transport Corridor exemplifies the new scramble for Africa, with both east and west angling for a piece of the route. He said that while the planned Mombasa-Nairobi Expressway and the now-out-of-the-picture French consortium on the Rironi-Mau Summit Road could check Chinese influence on the key corridor, a much better scenario would have been for Kenyan and other African governments to take charge of such corridors using their own resources. "It is very unfortunate that this far, 60 years into independence, we are losing all the gains that have been achieved... the gains are being rolled back and not in a small way, but in a big way," said Murima. "Infrastructure is the main asset that defines the sovereignty of a nation. Infrastructure such as the JKIA and the port of Mombasa are accessed through these roads and railways and can be said to be an extension of the ports. When you have control of the highway and the railway, then you have control of the port." Murima also explained that the rationale behind tolling is bringing infrastructure where there is none. In such a scenario, private sector players bring their capital and, on completion, operate the infrastructure to recoup their money and then transfer the asset to the government. In the case of different roads that the government wants to toll, it is not due to a lack of infrastructure, according to his observations, but rather the high traffic that can translate into high revenues. "When operating an asset is attached to a duration, such as the 30 years for the expressway, it is not a genuine Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)," he said, explaining that the private firms should hand over the infrastructure to government after recouping their funds, which ordinarily takes much less time compared to the 30 years companies are getting in Kenya. "The PPPs that we have in Kenya are informed by the huge amount of traffic, not the need to put up infrastructure where it does not exist." He also decried the manner in which public participation is being undertaken, noting that in the case of the Rironi-Mau Summit Road, Kenha has been making lengthy presentations and leaving little time for questions and taking feedback from the people who live and work along the highway. "During the public participation sessions, few people get to ask questions or even get satisfactory answers. When we give ideas or send presentations, they are not taken into consideration, going by the report that was presented to Parliament.... The sessions were just a formality," said Murima. He noted that the road could be upgraded at a fraction of the cost using local resources. These include contracting the National Youth Service (NYS) and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), as was the case with the upgrade of the Metre Gauge Railway, as well as co-opting graduate engineers. Analysts last week noted that raising money internally to build infrastructure is possible following the commissioning of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The mega hydroelectric dam was put up using resources mobilised from Ethiopians through infrastructure bonds. Kenya's neighbour to the north spent $5 billion (Sh650 billion), sourced from local financial institutions, but also the sale of bonds to ordinary Ethiopians, both in a show of sovereignty by the country as well as its capacity to undertake projects of such scale. Ken Gichinga, chief economist at Mentoria Economics, is also of the opinion that there is capacity in Kenya to finance mega projects and that the government should increasingly mobilise infrastructure-building resources locally. "There is plenty of patient capital within Kenya's pension industry. If well structured, it could unlock significant capital," he said. Gichinga also noted that the domineering presence of China on the Northern Transport Corridor had both pros and cons. On the one hand, he said, having China on board gives Kenya access to technical capacity and China's vast experience in infrastructure building. On the other hand, it exposes Kenya to "the risk of being beholden to a foreign power." This is JKIA-Westlands Expressway as captrured from Westlands on April 23rd, 2025. [Benard Orwongo,Standard] "It places a disproportionate power in China and its contractors, which might give them undue influence if left unchecked," he said, further noting that having more partners on the corridor would have given Kenya a diversity of project experience and a much greater realm of possibilities. "While China has demonstrated a competitive advantage in constructing large-scale infrastructure, Kenya's foreign policy should advocate for more diversity with its foreign partners to avoid concentration risks." For many multinational firms looking for opportunities in Kenya and Africa, the building of transport and other mega infrastructure has seemingly been lost to China. There are, however, those who see potential in technology. While it is an area that China may have surged ahead in, having deployed telecommunication networks, these are now nearing the end of life, opening up the field to other players to roll out new networks, but also play key roles in other emerging areas such as cybersecurity. Other than roads and railways, China has made major inroads in other sectors, including telecommunications. Different Chinese firms have for decades been building telecommunications networks, especially mobile telephony. Along with the Belt and Road Initiative, which has seen China play a critical role in many transport corridors across the world, it has also rolled out the digital Silk Road, which focuses on digital connectivity. Kenya is seen as having been critical in the launch and success of Beijing's Digital Silk Road in Africa. The Centre for a New American Security (CNAS), an independent, nonprofit organisation that is more focused on advancing US interests globally, noted that Kenya is strategic as a political and economic leader in the region. The organisation noted that Kenya is ideal for heavy US investments, not just for the opportunity that it offers US firms but also for checking China's influence in Africa. "For its part, Kenya has resisted outright alignment with either Washington or Beijing. With that said, China made clear inroads with signature infrastructure projects and high-level political engagement," said analysts at CNAS in a July 2025 report on countering China's digital silk road in Kenya.. "To move forward, Kenya will need strong and reliable partners to bridge connectivity gaps, strengthen cybersecurity, and support its transition to the cloud and emerging technologies like AI. In each of these domains, the United States offers formidable strengths that, if properly harnessed, can loosen Beijing's grip on this strategic gateway to sub-Saharan Africa." This is even as it noted that the US should focus on pressuring Kenya to be transparent and fair in procurement in its bid to beat China, including tying US development financing advanced to Kenya to stringent conditions. "Competing with China on bribery is a losing game. The US should double down on transparency and fair procurement," said CNAS. EHS Africa Logistics, an African logistics company, cautions that the investments that African countries are making in infrastructure are not purely commercial for the Chinese companies that are building them. The firm in an analysis noted that the firms that are building and are now securing agreements to operate infrastructure projects for decades are intertwined with the Chinese government.

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