Did i read China, India and Japan companies are the shortlisted? Sad for those Kenyans, TransCentury & Centum ... Kenya firms do have capacity to undertake large projects!!!

you can't prove you have capacity on building a railway if you haven't built one before. You'd have to partner with someone who has done so elsewhere in the world. in addition ,if your bidding partner (with the technical expertise) does not answer the questions in the bid document correctly or does not throw in some additional specs that some other consortium does (i.e. anticipate client needs even when not explicitly asked), you will have fewer scores on your bid than others and thus fail to get to the next round.

- So, although you are literally able to build the railway once you've got a technical partner, you may still fail simply due to scoring lower than other bidding consortiums.

Conclusion: It's less of a judgment on Kenyan firms' ABILITY to deliver, and more an assessment of the comparative functionality of the bids from all bidding consortiums.