German group eyes Kenya-Sudan rail project
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 26, 2005 (PANA) — A high-powered delegation from the German consortium, Thormaehlen Schweisstechnick AG, is expected in Nairobi Monday for talks with officials in a bid to obtain exclusive rights to build the 2,500 km railway line between Kenya and Sudan.
Led by Klaus Thormaehlen, the company Chief Executive Officer, the delegation will hold decisive discussions on the ambitious inter-country railway network covering Uganda, Kenya and Southern Sudan.
The consortium is expected to begin the process of registering a local subsidiary in Kenya or Uganda to undertake the US$5 billion rail project, whose feasibility studies were released last September when the delegation last visited East Africa.
Kenyan government sources said the Sudan rail construction and the proposed upgrading of the old Kenyan rail network have met a cold reception from Ugandan authorities.
The sources said that Kampala views Kenya’s strong partnership in the new project as a threat to joint concessioning efforts in the 1,200 km Kenya-Uganda railway.
The project sponsors have also reportedly expressed concern over Kenya’s slow pace of action on their requests to have exclusive rights on the upgrading of the railway.
A senior Kenyan government official said the concerns raised by the German investor were valid, saying: “You have seen the way things have been handled within government, nobody is serious about anything,” the official said.
Kenyan Planning Minister Anyang Nyongo and his Roads and Public Works counterpart Raila Odinga mooted the project while on an investment promotion trip to Germany last year in May. President Mwai Kibaki later expressed government’s backing to the project.
“There has been no much progress as far as we are concerned, the Transport ministry is best placed to answer questions regarding any progress on the project,” said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said.
The source disclosed that a government special committee on the rail project has not yet given any substantive report.
According to the source, the German investor is set to address a news conference in Nairobi Tuesday “to voice concerns over the slow pace of government action and could during the visit, announce its plan to abandon the Mombasa-Juba connectivity and concentrate on the Gulu-Juba route.”
The Kenyan official regretted the slow progress saying: “We did our part as the facilitators of the project but you can see
others are not serious about this problem.”
in December 2004, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which also supported the project, announced that they were undertaking an independent feasibility study to verify the socio-economic and environmental benefits of the project.