The standard gauge railway, My thoughts.

Our president MR. Uhuru Mwigai Kenyatta recently set a start to the building of the standard gauge railway that is to run from Nirobi to Mombasa n further to Kigali, Malaba, Kampala and Bujumbura. This triggerd lots of thoughts as to wether this might just be the new dawn for our country and fellow country men.

I personally find it to do more harm than good. Yes it comes with lots of advantages and i quote his exellency,

• it will reduce freigjht transportation traffic charges from their present average of  0.20 US dollars to per tonne kilometer to about 0.83 US dollars per tonne kilometer.
• it will reduce transit time by freight trains from 30 hours to an average of 10 hours.
• it will increase rail transport share in the Northern Corridor , reducing the damages on the road networks in that area.
• its also a core element of our larger vision 2030 , which aims at making our nation a middle_income country by 2030.

With all this in mind, i also acknowledge the fact that all that glitters is not gold. Yes its got lots of advantages but have we sat down and pondered on what the citizens of this country reallay want? For instance what are the chances that those not living along this route are actually going to benefit from this?

 The government is also thinking of extending this line after its completion to Mombasa in a bid to reduce damages on roads but what if it actually concentrate on makin the roads in our country safer and more sufficient because lets face it the road network in our country is not the best available. A good example is the Nairobi_Mombasa road that accomodates lots of transport goods from within and outside our borders. If this road was perhaps enlarged then jams would reduce and efficiency will be assured in the road.

Coming to an end, the government is bulding this line on loan basisi from China. Kenya as a country is currently facing huge debts and this would just add on to that. Investments should be towards reducing the debts not adding to the already available ones. I hope that as you read this it triggers your thoughts about this matter. Feel free to share this post and comment with your opinions. Thank You.