Sell old railway to China as scrap metal

Haters of the spanking standard gauge railway have been creating alarm about how trains ferrying cargo from Mombasa will be clanging with 80 per cent emptiness on the return journey.

The incantation of curses willing the new rail to fail is inspired by the false belief that Kenya makes its wealth from exporting goods. Kenya has never pretended to be in the export business. There was a decent Sh80 billion gap between imports and exports as at April, this year. Given that Kenya’s exports stand at Sh48.4 billion against Sh129.1 billion imports, the standard gauge railway was never built to ship out wealth. Kenyans spent their money bringing in food, cooking fat, live animals, fuel and lubricants from South Africa, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, France and Saudi Arabia.

BRING QUICKER

The standard gauge railway was built to bring things into the country more quickly. Eggs imported from Egypt would be so long on the road that by the time they arrived on the frying pan, they would be flying around as chicks. Cargo losses were estimated at two per cent when transporting goods by road.

Chinese eggs would be breaking with every pothole struck and South African oranges rotting in the back crates as police officers stopped vehicles to confirm the presence of a First Aid kit.

Now, even the most ingenious of police officers cannot stop a 120-kilometre-an-hour train to demand the driver’s licence. This is the problem the SGR was built to resolve – Kenyans are net consumers and hoarders, so the export trade is a bonus. Even then, the trains still improve the export business.

A fifth of all exports from Kenya - 19.5 per cent – end up in Uganda (12 per cent), the Democratic Republic of Congo (3.8 per cent), Rwanda (2.6 per cent) and Burundi (1.1 per cent), which can be accessed through Malaba. The other big recipients of Kenyan exports – the United Kingdom (7.9 per cent), Tanzania (7.7 per cent), the Netherlands (6.9 per cent), the United States (6.3 per cent), Pakistan (5.1 per cent), the United Arab Emirates (4.8 per cent), Egypt (3.6 per cent), Afghanistan (3.4 per cent), Serbia (3.2 per cent) and India (two per cent) – can all be served through the port of Mombasa.

However, for those insisting on the SGR taking out new exports, there is a ready answer in government. A fortnight ago, The EastAfrican reported that the funeral rites for the metre-gauge railway were just about done.

James Macharia, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, said less than half of Kenya’s 2,100-kilometre old railway network is in use, meaning that there are 2,000 kilometres of good steel rail lying idle in places as far as Nanyuki, Kitale, Butere and Taita Taveta.

IDLE CAPITAL

There is sentimental attachment to the old metre-gauge railway, which had trains stopping at every village and hamlet, with chickens clucking in the coaches and unwashed peasants smelling of soil and sweat suffocating infants. But it is idle capital that can be sold to China for refurbishing.

Stripping the old railway, together with the derelict infrastructure of pipes for supplying water to cool the steam engines of yore, and selling it for Sh4 billion to China would not only fetch the country a profit but also keep the engines running on the SGR. The thousands of acres of land lying idle on the railway way leaves could be converted irrigation schemes for growing maize and other crops already in short supply.

Renowned railway "uprooters" should be employed to expend their energy working their muscles to lift crossbars ties, smelt fishplates and hammer railway profiles and sleepers into various jua kali products. The old abandoned railway stations and the houses between them can be rented out as kiosks and restaurants.

Kwamchetsi Makokha is the programme advisor at Journalists for Justice.

The views expressed here are his own and do not represent those of JfJ.

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