{UAH} Kenya-Uganda railway construction in court

Kenya-Uganda railway construction in court

Thursday, March 13, 2014

NAIROBI - Nairobi High Court heard on Thursday a petition filed by two renowned Kenyan civil society activists seeking to stop the government from allowing a Chinese company to construct a multi-billion-dollar railway linking the coastal city of Mombasa with neighboring Uganda.

The petitioners, Okiah Omtatah and Wycliffe Nyakina, claim that Kenyan authorities failed to issue a tender for the construction of the 609-kilometre railway.

They argue that the government wrongly single-sourced the tender to a Chinese constructor.

The China Roads and Bridges Corporation, according to the petitioners, has been blacklisted and banned by the World Bank from undertaking contracts for alleged corrupt deals derived from bid-rigging in the Philippines.

Kenyan authorities say the railway is expected to be completed by 2016, before later being extended to Rwanda and South Sudan.

The authorities say Exim Bank China will give the East African nation a commercial loan of$1.6 billion as well as a concessional loan amounting to $1.6 for the construction of the railway.

During the first day of hearing, Omtatah pleaded with the court to refer the petition to a three-judge bench because, as he put it, they are likely to make varying concrete legal rulings.

But Mwangi Njoroge, representing the government, insisted that a single judge was capable of hearing the petition and making appropriate ruling.

"We do not see any substantial point of law that makes it impossible for you as a single judge to sit and determine this matter, your lordship," Njoroge told the presiding judge.

"We pray that the petitioners' submission be dismissed to pave the way for proceeding to set the pace for mechanisms of hearing and determination of this matter."

In his ruling after the submissions the judge agreed with that.

"There is need to dispense justice without delay, having regard to the matters pertaining to the petition and afford the petitioner the opportunity to get the matter up to the Supreme Court."

Soon after the judge ruled that the petition would be heard by him, he adjourned the hearing to April 18.

Outside the court, Njoroge welcomed the judge's ruling.

"It is fair. And that is what we were waiting for," Njoroge told Anadolu Agency.

"A single judge can hear the petition, not forgetting the fact that the matter is of national importance."

Nyakina, one of the petitioners, said they had no problem with the judge's decision.

"We agree with the ruling of the court that the petition be heard by a single judge although in our application we wanted a three-judge bench," he told AA.

Omtatah, the other petitioner, said the judge told them they would be able appeal to the Supreme Court in case he makes a decision that will not satisfy them.

"And so, we shall go with it," he told AA.

"But at the end of the day we hope justice will not only be seen to have been done, but will have been done."

Copyright © 2014 Anadolu Agency

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower