When the police recently flagged the brazen theft of Standard Gauge Railway furniture in Kajiado county, they amplified the need to protect this national asset.
In the above-mentioned incident, at least 300 metres of protective fence had been vandalised along the SGR corridor at Oloorsikon, Kajiado East subcounty, in a chilling sub-text to the general decline in security in the region.
The police sounded the warning that once the criminals were done appropriating the attendant furniture, they were likely to go for the main prize; the SGR track, a prospect that is too grim to contemplate and would basically render the SGR services inoperable.
Sadly, the Oloorsikon incident is not isolated. SGR infrastructure vandalism has in the past been reported in Kibwezi in Makueni county and Murtoto in Narok county.
There is an urgent need for a concerted, national, multi-sectoral effort to preserve the SGR and its accompanying furniture not just as a prized national treasure but also as insurance to underwrite the immense socioeconomic benefits that this piece of infrastructure has brought to our country and even the region normally referred to in logistics industry parlance as the Northern Corridor.
Conceptualised by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda as a solution to inefficiencies in the conveyance of goods from the Port of Mombasa to its expansive hinterland and vice versa, the SGR, whose construction started in 2014, is the biggest infrastructure project ever in the region.
Kenya was tasked with the construction of the 1,300km track within its territory, as part of the Mombasa-Kigali line. The construction of the Kenyan line, listed as a flagship project of Vision 2030, the country's main economic blueprint, has been implemented in three phases: Mombasa-Nairobi, Nairobi-Naivasha and Naivasha-Malaba, via the Lake Victoria Port of Kisumu, with the first two complete.
On the cargo transport front, the SGR has materially delivered on the following fronts; speed of delivery, security, volumes, improved efficiency, reduced carbon footprint and preservation of our roads. These variables are critical in a part of the world where it is estimated that for every shilling charged on a finished product; at least 40 cents can be attributed to logistics.
Since the launch, on December 1, 2017, of the Madaraka Express freight service, the volume of cargo moved on the SGR has maintained an upward trajectory, sustained by a good working relationship between the SGR operator and the relevant government agencies like the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and other cargo intervenors.
The SGR operator moved 2,930,698 gross tonnes in 2018, which has since grown to 6,264,654 tonnes moved last year. From January 2018 to May 2023, SGR moved a total of 26,038,668 tonnes, comprising both imports and exports.
On matters speed, it takes eight hours to move freight from Mombasa to Nairobi. Cargo being trans-shipped from the Naivasha Inland Container Deport takes 10 hours to terminate in Kampala, providing seamless, end-to-end logistics for goods destined for Kigali, Bujumbura or Kisangani.
Central to the SGR’s cargo operations is the ICD, which acts as a clearing house for cargo destined for and from the region. The 45,000 square metres’ facility, which has the capacity to handle 2 million tonnes of goods per year, has improved hinterland connectivity, reduced congestion at the Nairobi Inland Container Depot and spurred economic growth, besides reducing the distance from Mombasa by almost 527 kilometres.
Transit cargo can be delivered to the ICD straight from the Port of Mombasa. Mombasa’s Northern Corridor hinterland countries – Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi, DR Congo and beyond – can pick and transport their cargo by road to their ultimate destinations. Exports and empty containers can also be consolidated at Naivasha and ferried back to Mombasa for onward shipping.
A major socioeconomic benefit of the SGR is the many direct and indirect jobs it has created – both during the construction of its two phases by the Chinese firms China Road and Bridge Corporation (Mombasa to Nairobi) and China Communications Construction Company (Nairobi to Naivasha) and in operations. The incorporation of local content and technology transfer was at the core of the contracts the two firms signed with the government of Kenya.
There is no denying that a new wave of urbanisation is sweeping through the SGR Corridor. Some 33 hitherto backwater towns, known for their dearth of life, are breathing again, thanks to their designation as SGR termini and with it, the real prospect of better standards of living for their populace.
Commentator on railway transport and infrastructure development.