President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta during the launch of the standard gauge railway line in Mombasa last year. FILE
What you need to know:
Although the specification for standard gauge rail is 39 inches, MPs say contracts between Kenya Railways and Chinese firm showed that the line would be built to Chinese standards.
A web search shows that the Chinese Standard railway would be about 56 inches wide.
A parliamentary committee has raised questions over unclear specifications for the standard gauge railway saying this could cost the economy more in maintaining the 609 kilometre line.
Although the specification for standard gauge railway is usually about one and a half metres (39 inches), the Public Investments Committee (PIC) said commercial contracts between Kenya Railways and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) showed that the line would be built to Chinese standards.
PIC member and Aldai MP Cornel Serem drew the committee’s attention to the specifications and demanded that executors of the commercial contracts be summoned to explain the actual implications in terms of costs.
“If you look at the commercial contracts, it is not a standard gauge that we are talking about but a Chinese designed railway, which we don’t know what it is,” said Mr Serem.
The committee adjourned until Wednesday to wait for technocrats to shed light on the specifications of the Sh448 billion railway, but our web search showed that the Chinese Standard would be about 56 inches wide.
Engineer Kiragu Chege who worked at the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) for many years told the committee that the cost of the railway would vary depending on the standards used.
“We are just being told of the Mombasa-Nairobi section but nobody has told us the Nairobi-Malaba section, which is bound to cost more than Sh1.3 trillion due to terrain challenges,” noted Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa.
The committee chaired by Eldas MP Adan Keynan will know the actual cost of the Mombasa-Nairobi-Malaba railway line when it interviews former KRC managing director Nduva Muli on Wednesday morning.
Mr Muli, who is the Transport principal secretary, appeared before the team together with Cabinet secretary Michael Kamau two weeks ago.
Documents tabled before the committee indicate that Mr Muli had dismissed the project as “unbankable and expensive” upon the release of a feasibility study and preliminary designs in 2012. CRBC did the study for free on behalf of the government.
Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa said there were many audit queries in China involving rail projects undertaken by CRBC. The company constructed the the Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway together with 10 other partners.
Treasury secretary Henry Rotich and Mr Kamau had told the committee that the railway would be built to American standards to allow for freedom in sourcing for rolling stock.
Former Transport minister Ali Mwakwere said on Monday that the ministry recommended a metre gauge between two parallel lines translating to 39.39 inches.
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