China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC) which is putting it up jointly with the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC).
The Vision 2030 flagship project is the first new railroad and the largest construction project ever undertaken by the government since independence in 1963 with projected benefits in providing catalysts and impetus for the growth of neighbouring landlocked countries.
Once completed, the government estimates that the new rail line will contribute to Kenya’s Growth Domestic Product by 1.5 percent, drive the development of related industries and promote Kenya’s foreign trade besides creating more than 30,000 jobs.
It is estimated that one in every five Kenyan youth in the working age group of 18 and above is unemployed, the highest in East Africa-according to a recent economic survey of 2016 which shows that there were 128,000 jobs created in the formal sector in 2015 alone, accounting for 15.2 per cent of the 841,600 jobs generated last year.
Kenya is a beneficiary of the China-Africa relations which were elevated by Chinese premier Li’s visit to the African Union headquarters in May 2014 when he also visited Kenya.
This was a culmination of agreements between President Kenyatta and Xi in Beijing and in South Africa where both heads of state agreed to implement major projects such as the railway, special economic zone and realize the bilateral cooperation featuring mutual benefit and win-win results.
Scholars say both China and Africa are at the strategic junction of future development. China is now undergoing the economic transformation and entering the first year of the 13th five year plan period, while the African Union is implementing its agenda 2063 to revitalize the continent for the coming 50 years.
This is why Africa has been described as a beautiful lady attracting continental suitors from-China, Europe, America among others.
But Professor Macharia Munene of the United States International University (USIU) argues it can be the opposite when it comes to China.
“What if we say China is the beautiful lady attracting suitors from various continents including Africa?” he posed to participants at the Mombasa symposium that was co-hosted by the Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, China-Africa Development Fund, African Economic Research Consortium, Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) and the Chinese embassy in Kenya.
But why is Africa still poor yet it is rich in natural resources?
“Africa is not poor, it is a rich continent inhabited by poor people,” Ikiara said, and warned against what he described as “deliberate distortion of China-Africa relations.”
Wang Weng, the Executive Dean and Research Fellow at Chongyang Institute for China-Africa think tanks cooperation believes Kenya and Africa as a whole has the potential of becoming a strong economy with in future, citing his country’s status in the 1970s.
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