Contract for Kenya’s China-funded railway ruled ‘illegal’
- Court of Appeal finds against US$3.2 billion contract for belt and road project which started operating in 2017
- Ruling throws question mark over future of this and other construction agreements
Xi congratulated Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta for ensuring the uninterrupted flow of cargo from the Port of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast into the East African hinterland via the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), which first started operating in 2017. Kenya’s decision, he said, had helped keep trade flowing in the region despite freight restrictions required by Covid-19 containment measures.
But the rail project has faced one setback after another, and the latest could have major implications on its future and any other projects that may follow. On Friday, a Kenyan appellate court declared the rail contract between Kenya and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) illegal.
The Court of Appeal, which handles cases arising from the decisions of the High Court in Kenya, ruled that state-owned Kenya Railways had failed to comply with – and violated – the nation’s laws “in the procurement of the SGR project”.
02:09
Kenya opens massive US$1.5 billion railway project funded and built by China
Kenyan activist Okiya Omtatah and the Law Society of Kenya, an association of practising advocates, brought the suit in 2014 in a bid to stop construction of the SGR. They argued the railway was a public project that should have been subject to a fair, competitive and transparent procurement process.
