The ghosts of the Standard Gauge Railway project are back, and civil societies and the public in Mombasa are up in arms over the monies Kenyans have supposedly lost in the name of the project.
Mombasa residents are now calling on all those who ‘ate’ the SGR money to ‘vomit’ it and pay for their sins.
This is after a public town hall meeting on the SGR debt and its impact on Mombasa, organised by Okoa Mombasa— a conglomerate of several civil society organisations including Muhuri, Kenya Human Rights Commission, InformAction, Haki Yetu, among others—heard that Kenya has so far paid Sh1.2 trillion towards the SGR loan debt.
Former presidential candidate Jimmy Wanjigi and whistle blower Bernard Muchiri told the forum that the contract sum for the project was Sh475 billion.
However, Kenya borrowed Sh539 billion from the China Exim Bank for the project, and at the same time the government through the National Treasury, cumulatively provided Sh644 billion in grants to the Kenya Railway Corporation from 2013/2014 to 2019/2020 fiscal years for the project.
“This means we have paid Sh1.2 trillion for a project that should have cost Sh475 billion. Meaning some people have pocketed Sh700 billion and we are told to pay for it,” Wanjigi said.
Muhuri director Khelef Khalifa said the SGR ‘debt’ is to blame for Kenyans being overtaxed.
“It is this non-existent debt that is making mama mbogas and boda boda operators pay all manner of taxes now,” Khalifa said.
Muchiri said Mombasa people have borne the brunt of the SGR ills more than any other people in the country, yet the SGR was not a public project, there was no public contract and no public debt.
“It was a turn-key contract where the contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation, was the one who was supposed to borrow money and not the Kenyan government.
“But some people went and turned it into a mix of turn-key and commercial contract so that they can claim to borrow the money,” Muchiri said.
He said the Sh539 billion supposedly borrowed from Exim Bank, was conditional and that it was not even given to the National Treasury.
“It stayed in Beijing. So what debt are we paying? Are we paying for something we never got?” Muchiri posed.
Wanjigi said he was behind Senator Okiya Omtatah going to court over the SGR because he provided him with the documents.
Omtatah obtained orders that declared the SGR contract illegal.
Wanjigi also said he was behind former Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter making noise over the SGR, sponsoring him over the same.
He said he was working behind the scenes then but has now decided to work openly and save Kenya.
“In 2014, Uhuru called me and talked to me for two hours on phone saying I am sabotaging his government and that he will arrest me. I told him to go ahead,” Wanjigi said.
He said as long as Kenyans continue paying the debt, the value of the shilling will continue dropping and Kenyans will pay through the nose for commodities like fuel.
Joseph Wamiti, a Nyali resident at the forum, said Kenyans must stop paying taxes which then go to repaying non-existent loans.
“Those people should be swept away by floods,” Wamiti said.
Lawyer Willis Otieno, who fought the SGR deal in court for Muhuri, said Ethiopia and Tanzania had a longer SGRs constructed at half the price Kenya paid for the same.
“We need some explanations. We need to be told the truth,” he said.
KHRC vice chair Cornelius Oduor said the matter must be re-introduced in Parliament for talks.
“So that we pay only what is due to us and not pay what is not due to us,” Oduor said.
“We must come up in our numbers as Mombasa people to put pressure on political leaders to stand up. We cannot have this matters discussed in board rooms, people make deals that benefit them and go silent,” Oduor said.
However, Muchiri said already, a petition was presented to Parliament on June 19, 2023, and since then, nothing has been done.
He said he also followed the matter up with the National Treasury, Kenya Railway Corporation, Transport PS, Attorney General, Auditor General, but has received no response from any of them.
Haki Yetu Organisation executive director Fr Gabriel Dolan said Kenyans are tired and exhausted.
“We have no opposition. We are on our own. It is a waste of time and money,” Fr Dolan said.
He said politicians have failed Kenyans on this.
“We have to realise that this government is getting away with anything because we have not stood up and we are beaten. We need to wake up,” Fr Dolan said.
Lawyer Willis Otieno said time has come for Kenyans to make a decision to stop repaying debts that were not taken using the correct channels.
“Sovereignty is on the people. We can take the government and lead ourselves,” Otieno said.
Prof Hassan Mwakimako said he once went to China and found out that the Chinese people were also skeptical of the SGR project because of the inflated prices.
He said the Chinese people were worried that Kenya may fail to repay the debt because it is too high and that the Chinese Exim Bank, which signed a deal with the government of Kenya, is a public bank.
“They were worried that they could lose their money too out of non-payment,” the professor said.
Governor Abdulswamad Nassir said when he was Mvita MP he spoke at length against the SGR deal and the privatisation of the Mombasa port.
“If you go to the Hansard, the records are there for all to see,” he said.
There were three contracts about the SGR, the loan contract, the work contract and the repayment contract.
“My last signature as MP was in the PIC report. What was there in the contract was that KPA and KRC will take the responsibility of repaying the debt.
“And if there would be any dispute, it would be resolved in Beijing. Port and Railway assets, both present and future, were also put up as security,” Nassir said, who promised to do all things possible to provide the documentation.
