Why standard gauge rail critics missed the train

A sample of the standard gauge railway that was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in Changamwe, Mombasa. Photo/FILE 

In Summary

• Clean bill of health by MPs on the plan is an impetus to fast track the scheme.

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Last Wednesday, parliamentary Public Investments Committee chairman Adan Keynan tabled an important report in the august House.

The 82-pager, and this count excludes a huge segment detailing minutes, evidence and relevant annexes, which is also part of the compendium, is the result of several months of investigation by the committee into the “procurement and financing of the proposed standard gauge railway ” line between Mombasa and Nairobi.

The committee’s verdict is that “the project should proceed, taking into consideration the observations and recommendations by the committee and review of the project to ensure value for money since as of now, there are no contractual or financing obligations on the part of the government until a financing agreement is signed”. 

The report reiterates the project is a Vision 2030 flagship project and is “critical for the economic development of Kenya and the wider East Africa region”.

Among a raft of proposals, the PIC recommends that the government fast-tracks Phase II of the project, so as to achieve the “maximum viable economic potential in the region”.

This is in reference to the second leg of the project, which constitutes the building of a standard gauge railway line linking Nairobi to the border town of Malaba, with a branch to the lakeside city of Kisumu.

The committee calls for a strengthening of the legal provisions for the Railway Development Fund, the special kitty introduced to finance the project, and a review of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act of 2005 to align it with the Constitution and emerging trends in public buying.

By putting closure to its inquiry, the PIC has brought to a positive end the twin parallel investigations that Parliament instituted into the project.

The other, by the parliamentary Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing, under the chairmanship of Starehe MP Maina Kamanda, concluded its work in February, delivering an identical “go” verdict.

Government agencies working on the project, and especially Kenya Railways as the implementing agency and the Ministry of Transport as the policy unit, have every reason to feel vindicated by the House teams’ verdict.

Interestingly, the conclusions by PIC are largely aligned with what the government has held all along.

That critics of the project, who had earlier mounted a frenetic political campaign against it, had largely missed the train on the financial end of things.

Kenya had not lost any money because it had not signed any binding commercial contracts with the bidders. The MPs also found a memorandum of understanding between Kenya and the relevant entities as the only document that was on the table regarding the project.

But even the other arguments against the project by both elements within the political class and lately civil society, notably hinged on its commercial viability and technical soundness, have been wobbly, presumptive and devoid of science.

The clean bill of health by the two key oversight bodies in Parliament gives the project much-needed socio-political sanction and momentum.