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Kenya to seek US$1 billion from China for stalled railway, ‘more time’ to repay debts, deputy president says
- Kenyan President William Ruto is expected to meet China’s Xi Jinping during a trip to Beijing for the third Belt and Road Forum this month
- Ruto’s apparently West-leaning team has previously criticised the preceding Kenyan administration for burdening the country with Chinese debt
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Kenya will ask China for US$1 billion to finance stalled infrastructure projects when President William Ruto meets Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing this month.
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Ruto will also seek loan restructuring, asking China for more time, “so we can pay slowly, and add us a little money so we can finish road construction”, his deputy said.
“If we get US$1 billion we will be able to give [contractors] the money they are owed so they can return so even as we pay the debt, the roads are completed,” Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua told a Nairobi radio station on Friday.
Ruto is expected to be in Beijing for the upcoming third Belt and Road Forum, after Kenyan transport secretary Kipchumba Murkomen’s trip late last month to lay the groundwork for the presidential visit.
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China-funded infrastructure across Africa force difficult decisions for its leaders
China-funded infrastructure across Africa force difficult decisions for its leaders
Kenya currently has about US$8 billion in Chinese loans, most of it used by the administration of Ruto’s predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta to build the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and highways.
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