Mombasa-Nairobi Railway creates 38,000 jobs in Kenya

While inspecting the railway's construction site, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway will effectively boost Kenya's economic growth, create a large number of jobs, and promote the country's economic restructuring.

The newly finished Mombasa-Nairobi Railway will shorten the travelling time between the cities, 472 kilometers apart, from 12 hours by road to about four hours.

Designed and built by China, the railway is also installed with Chinese equipment, and will be managed by China for five years after its trial operation starting in June, during which China will train 3,000 locals to run the railway independently in the future. 

The Kenyan people intimately call the new modern railway a "century railway". It replaced a narrow railway between the country's two largest cities built by the British colonists more than 100 years ago.  

Constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, the railway, according to its long-term planning, will connect Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and South Sudan, and stretch 2,700 kilometers long, becoming a main railway in East Africa. 

In the first trial run of the railway, the train, pulled by a diesel locomotive from China, runs at a speed of 100 km per hour. The Kenyan journalists covering the event on the train are very excited, many of whom are experiencing a modern train for the first time.

"How smoothly and steadily it starts," said one of the journalists named Alex. "The train is fast, safe and comfortable, and the railway has all-round advantages and will change Kenya's transportation conditions."

The train reaches Nairobi Terminal in the south suburb of the city, which is a huge construction covered with glass curtain walls and equipped with facilities all made in China. The railway has 56 diesel locomotives of three kinds: passenger transport, freight transport and switch engine, all made by CRRC Corporation, which are the main engines used widely in China.

Alex said: "Many shops will open near the railway station and it will become a new commercial center in the city. When the railway extends to Uganda and Rwanda, it will accelerate the freight transport in East Africa and the commodities will become cheaper. All local residents will benefit from it."

Joseph, a local employee of the CRBC said: "The railway will bring obvious benefits. Infrastructure construction is the key to economic development. The railway will not only boost the country's economy, but also change our lives. In this sense, the Belt and Road Initiative is of great importance to the world's sustainable development."

Statistics show the railway project has created an accumulation of 38,000 jobs, among which about 90 percent are taken by locals. Sharon and Alice are two young Kenyan women. Sharon used to learn Chinese language in Shandong Normal University in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province. Alice used to receive training of operating engines in Baoji, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. 

Both of them are employed, after fierce competition, as engine drivers on the railway. "When I took trains in China, I found it was so fast, steady and comfortable. I wondered how the engine drivers run the huge thing and I also wondered when my country can have such modern train. Now my dream comes true," Sharon said.

"Many young people are longing for the job. I am happy that I can win the offer," said Alice. She bought new furniture with her first month salary from China on the internet."When I received training in Baoji, I settled my mind that I will become the first batch of talents in the modern railway system in Kenya and I will be a teacher in the field in the future," she said.

Eng. P. Kilimo, infrastructure secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Kenya, said the CRBC provided Kenyan students studying for degrees in engineering in China with scholarships. These students will become talents in transport management, telecommunication control and vehicle engineering. 

The Kenyan government regards the cultivation of large number of modern railway talents as a key task, and China provides advanced railway technology to Kenya in its cooperation with Kenya."It is better to teach fishing than to give fish. We must train locals and transfer technology. This is our promise to the Kenyan government and people," said Li Qiang, general-manager of CRBC's Kenya office.