The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is an important achievement of the "Ten Cooperation Plans" determined at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. It was constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation and connects Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, with a total length of about 480 kilometers. The modern railway built with Chinese standards, Chinese technology and Chinese equipment is also the first railway built in Kenya since its independence.
The railway was completed and opened to traffic on May 31, 2017.
As of the beginning of June 2022, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has sent a total of 7.785 million passengers and 1.773 million TEUs of containers, promoting economic and trade exchanges between Kenya and other East African countries.
[Concurrent] Philip Ma Yingka, General Manager of Kenya Railways
This brings many benefits including, but not limited to, goods and services arriving at their destination, stimulating economic growth in the region, farmers getting fertilizer, and now the export of goods is unchallenged, you see the trickle economy and industrialization and employment across the country Complement each other.
[Concurrent] Passenger Bendit Mussoka
Riding the SGR is a treat and you can dine on it without worrying about an accident as it is safer than the bus.
Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has always adhered to the concept of green development.
The railway passes through Nairobi National Park and Tsavo National Park. In order to reduce the impact of the railway on the surrounding environment, the construction unit built viaducts and culverts, so that even migrating animals can pass through without obstacles.
[Concurrent] Passenger Fosiah Hussein
I love the scenery along the way, on a sunny day, you can see all kinds of animals, zebras, gazelles, giraffes, even elephants, and when the weather is nice, you can see Mount Kilimanjaro beautiful view.
In the past five years, the tangible benefits that the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has brought to East African countries in terms of talent training and technology transfer are obvious to all.
Railway operation and maintenance is a highly technical job. In order to improve the skills of employees, the local railway company invited experienced Chinese employees to train local employees.
[Concurrent] Freight train safety officer Hudson Oby
Local employees have been able to gradually become competent in various disciplines of the railway major, so as to obtain better career development opportunities.
It is because of this master-apprentice training that we now have Kenyan employees in various management positions.
This railway has not only changed the lives of the Kenyan people, promoted the economic and social development of Kenya, and realized the transfer of railway technology from China, but also activated the transportation and even the commercial territory of the entire East Africa.
(Reporter Liu Chao source material from China Road and Bridge Group)
Responsible editor: [Song Fangcan]