China's cold feet derail Kenyan transport hopes

Saturday Insight

China is now the single largest financier for infrastructure in Africa, funding one in five projects and constructing every third one, according to a Deloitte report (stock picture)

David Herbling and Dandan Li

Gleaming concrete sleepers run across a new railway bridge in Kenya, the latest stretch of a Chinese-built line from the coast all the way to Uganda.

Only, it does not quite reach the border. Instead, the railroad ends abruptly by a sleepy village about 75 miles west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Construction of what was intended to be a flagship infrastructure project for eastern Africa was halted earlier this year after China withheld some $4.9bn (€4.4bn) in funding needed to allow the line's completion.