Ksh 1 billion on Grass, 249 million on Entertainment, The Untold SGR Tales

If you are a social media user, you have obviously come across some of these funny phrases that say “Hii Kenya Sihami” which means I will not migrate from Kenya.

Those who came up with the phrase were probably being ironical given the number of negative things in Kenya such as the ginormous debts that we owe big economies like China.

When Kenyans talk about China, a couple of things (which most of them consider negative) come into mind, including the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).

SGR terms still not disclosed up to date

The SGR is like that type of bewitchment Kenyans were subjected to and because something had been done to us, we could not see.

The dirty game started when the Government of Kenya signed a deal with the Chinese government to kick start the construction of the lucrative SGR. The terms of the deal between the Government of Kenya and that of China have never been disclosed up to date.

It was confirmed that there were very strict clauses presented by the Chinese government preventing Kenyan citizens from knowing the nitty gritty’s of the SGR contract. Kenyans were only allowed to check the details after China did a writing.

Our dear President Uhuru Kenyatta had promised Kenyan journalists back in 2018 that they would be allowed to take a look into the contract. It is now 2020 and journalists are still drooling to know what is inside the deal.

Well, the deal was not the only dirty game, the SGR had overrated prices on the purchases made and some other expenses used during the construction period.

6000 Chinese employed as menials.

Over 6000 Chinese citizens were roaming freely in Kenya in the name of constructing the SGR. The expatriates were doing things that even Kenyans could do, but Kenyans were outcast.

Imagine if the 6000 jobs were given to the Unemployed youth in Kenya. I told you to imagine because that is what was left for us to do, or maybe that was the term of the deal.

249 million shillings Set Aside for Chinese Entertainment.

As it is said, one of the best ways of motivating employees is by setting aside good money for their entertainment.

Whereas most Kenyans were singing that they are broke, the Chinese working on the SGR had a whopping 249,000,000 shillings set aside for their entertainment? Let alone their hefty salaries.

The expatriates came to Kenya assured that they were going to have a party after party.

In fact, the merry-making never stopped until an engineer parted with 5 million shillings of airtime for three years. Meanwhile, a Kenyan was thinking about ‘how to make a reverse call’.

The engineers’ office was furnished costing the government 57 million shillings. He was bought computers worth 280,000 shillings each while the laserjet printers in his office cost 513,700 shillings.

Apart from his (lead engineer’s) office, his house was also furnished costing about 3 million shillings.

Every station was supposed to have an electric engineer who was given a vehicle worth 4.5 million shillings. These vehicles were shipped into the country freely with no stamp duty paid.

1 billion shillings spent on SGR grass lawns

When SGR needed beautiful scenery, someone came up with an idea of buying and planting grass. Then someone else calculated and found out that grass would ‘only’ cost the Kenyan taxpayers 1,000,000,000 shillings.

Our modern trains cost too much money yet they are diesel-fueled. Our neighbors Tanzania are planning to build an electric rail, with the contractor quoting a lower amount than that of Kenya’s SGR.

Read Also: Why doesn’t the SGR have Overnight Trips to and From Mombasa?