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{UAH} Allan/Edmund/Gook/Pojim: GAITHO: SGR is a great project, but let the thieves pay for their sins


By MACHARIA GAITHO
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We stand witness this week to one of the most momentous events in the history of transportation in Kenya, when President Uhuru Kenyatta officially launches the new Mombasa-Nairobi railway.

Only an utter cynic or perpetual naysayer would deny that the new network, popularly referred to as SGR (contraction of standard gauge railway), will be a game changer in the movement of people and goods from the Indian Ocean coastline to the hinterland, especially after the remaining phases to the Ugandan border are completed.

TRANSPORT
Despite all the misgivings about crooked procurement, inflated pricing, and possible diversion of billions of shillings from the public coffers into private pockets, I am still excited about this project.

It should be as important to the development of Kenya as the now dilapidated 'Lunatic Express', the Kenya-Uganda Railway, was a century-and-a-quarter ago.

If it works as advertised, it will become my preferred mode of transport to and from Mombasa.

It will offer many the chance to travel in comfort at affordable rates while getting a feel of the beautiful countryside.

I certainly don't feel sorry for the airline operators who charge us an arm and a leg for that short hop, who might now have to drastically reduce their fares or abandon the route altogether.

And I would say good riddance to the bus operators who also fleece us for the long, uncomfortable and dangerous journeys on that killer highway.

BRIBES
As for the truckers who destroy the roads with their overloaded trailers and make themselves a homicidal menace to other road users, it's sayonara, au revoir, kwaheri, auf wiedersehen, hamba kahle, adios, vaarwel, zàijiàn!

The long distance buses and trucks will be missed only by traffic police and fellow parasites who make illicit fortunes from the private toll stations in the name of roadblocks, speed traps and weigh bridges.

I must emphasise that welcoming the railway does not amount to a turning a blind eye to the official chicanery and corruption that blighted a very worthy project and made us all the poorer.

JUBILEE MANIFESTO
Neither is it an endorsement of the ignoble politics that cleverly timed the official opening to coincide with the launch of the official campaign period for the 2017 General Election.

I understand that President Uhuru Kenyatta is on the hunt for votes, and will happily clutch onto anything that will showcase the achievements of his first term.

His strategists long ago identified the railway as one of the flagship projects to illustrate delivery of the Jubilee manifesto.

They pushed hard to make sure it was completed in time to make a campaign statement; even if that meant riding roughshod over procurement laws, paying scant attention to value for money, and creating room for rent seekers to make a killing.

POLITICAL MILEAGE
Making political capital out of development projects, I can live with.

Any politician would do the same. Even President Kenyatta's main opponent in the presidential election, National Super Alliance candidate Raila Odinga, would behave exactly the same in a similar situation.

Instead of threatening to scrap or review Jubilee projects if elected, Mr Odinga might prefer the wiser option of moving to take credit for the very same railways, roads, power stations and other big infrastructure projects the Kenyatta campaign is capitalising on.

CORRUPTION
Threats to uproot railway lines and tear up tarmac roads would be foolish, but Mr Odinga could justifiably claim that he helped initiate most of these projects during the period he served as the Prime Minister, sharing power with President Mwai Kibaki, under the 2008-2013 grand coalition government.

I'm not interested in the politics of development projects, but I would still insist that those implicated in grand larceny must eventually be dealt with, and forced to refund stolen public money as they head to jail.

NEXT SGR PHASE
Impunity must never be rewarded. That's why it is alarming that the government is already shopping around for financiers and contractors for the next phase of SGR, again under very opaque terms.

A viable project will attract honest investors, so there is no need to sidestep public procurement laws unless the intention is to steal our money.

Meanwhile, asking for a friend: Could the Kenya Railways bosses tell us why the SGR hostesses are draped in colours of the Ugandan flag?

Email: gaithomail@gmail.com Twitter: @MachariaGaitho

GAITHO: SGR is a great project, but let the thieves pay for their sins - Daily Nation
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/SGR-is-a-great-project--VANDALISM/440808-3947348-l35uqiz/index.html

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