THE parliamentary committee on Transport will today table a report that clears the Sh327 billion standard gauge railway.

The committee has given the new railway from Mombasa to Malaba a clean bill of health. The MPs blamed unnamed businessmen for trying to block the construction after missing out on the tender. The committee, chaired by Starehe MP Maina Kamanda, found no evidence of corruption in the project.

The MPs said that negotiations on the project started in 2008 involving then Transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the China Road and Bridge Corporation. They said that the Jubilee government was implementing what was started by the coalition government. They noted that the Chinese government had given an assurance that CRBC was qualified and competent.

The cabinet in 2011 decided to proceed with the project on a government-to-government basis, subject to a financing agreement between Kenya and the Import and Export Bank of China, and thus Section 6 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act would apply.

The committee interviewed Public Procurement Oversight Authority Director General Maurice Juma, Attorney General Githu Muigai and Transport Secretary Michael Kamau.

The committee also interviewed Transport PS Nduva Muli, Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich, Treasury PS Kamau Thugge and Kenya Railways acting Managing Director Alfred Matheka. The Public Investment Committee, chaired by Eldas MP Adan Keynan, is still probing the tender.

Last month President Uhuru Kenyatta said there will be no turning back on the construction of the standard gauge railway. He went to China last July and secured the loan to build the Mombasa-Nairobi section of the railway.


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Shida tupu, I remember how the manifesto was praised by some here, promise what you can achieve hata kama ni 50%+1

Ukora. Running a country cannot be equated to selling chicken.

Kumbukumbu