Kenya to lease 10 South African diesels?

[John Ashworth]

Taxpayers to foot Sh420m railway repair bill

By PAUL WAFULA
Posted Monday, August 20 2012 at 16:47
Daily Nation

IN SUMMARY

- In early 2008, youths from Nairobi’s Kibera slums uprooted sections of the Kenya Uganda Railway line, cutting off the two countries for several weeks.
- In April 2009 youths uprooted the railway line again, this time protesting the occupation of Migingo Island by Ugandan soldiers.
- RVR runs the 1,200km railway line connecting the Port of Mombasa and landlocked Uganda after the two countries kicked out Sheltam Corporation of South Africa and brought in Egyptian private equity firm Citadel to take control of the Kenya Uganda Railway.

The Rift Valley Railways has secured government commitment to pay a Sh420 million bill it slapped the Kenya Railways with as compensation for damage of the railway line at the height of the post-poll violence.

This means taxpayers will foot the bill of repairing the railway line being run by a private company.

In early 2008, youths from Nairobi’s Kibera slums uprooted sections of the Kenya Uganda Railway line, cutting off the two countries for several weeks.

In April 2009 youths uprooted the railway line again, this time protesting the occupation of Migingo Island by Ugandan soldiers. (READ: Kibera’s rail as a protest tool)

In an interview, Rift Valley Railways (RVR) group chief executive Brown Ondego said he is considering leasing 10 locomotives from South Africa to address a shortfall in pulling capacity as he races to meet the targets of the concession.

“We have reached an agreement with Kenya Railways and the government and they are finalising the final bit of the $5 million (Sh420 million) compensation. We have submitted everything that was required and it is just a claim for the damage that was being done,” Mr Ondego said.

RVR runs the 1,200km railway line connecting the Port of Mombasa and landlocked Uganda after the two countries kicked out Sheltam Corporation of South Africa and brought in Egyptian private equity firm Citadel to take control of the Kenya Uganda Railway.

This comes at a time when the Joint Railway Commission (JRC), the entity that monitors and oversees the operations of RVR on behalf of the governments of Kenya and Uganda, has expressed concerns over the ability of the firm to meet the freight volumes targets stipulated in the concession agreement.

The performance of the firm over the past two years has remained flat. The net tonne kilometre (the net tonnages multiplied by the number of kilometres a train travels) remained at 1.2 million.

In 2011, RVR ferried 1.68million tonnes, compared with 1.7 million tonnes the previous year.

“This in mostly attributed to challenges in efficiency of locomotive power,” Mr Ondego said. Container Freight business from the Port of Mombasa accounted for 36 per cent of freight volumes moved.

Containers volume increased to approximately 400,000 tonnes in 2011/12 from 378,000 the previous year.

Mr Ondego said RVR expects to start reporting operating profits from next year.

[M. Hardy-Randall]

Who is going to carry out the re-gauging of the locomotives? Will it be Nairobi or in SA?