Feature: Chinese road project offers Kenyans massive opportunities

2021-02-11 18:55:53 GMT2021-02-12 02:55:53(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

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NAIROBI, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- A yellow lorry carrying murram negotiated a corner along Mombasa Road in Kenya's capital Nairobi on Thursday before entering an area fenced with blue iron sheets to offload the construction material.

It took about five minutes to complete the task before the machine left, allowing more lorries to offload the material at one of the sites used during the construction of the Nairobi Expressway.

The road being built by Chinese contractor China Roads and Bridges Corporation has brought huge business opportunities to Kenyan firms.

Among those benefitting are transporters, workers employed directly at the site, sand harvesters, steel manufacturers and timber merchants.

Up to 2,800 staff are employed directly by the project, according to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA).

The staff are both technical and non-technical, who work with their Chinese counterparts at various sections of the road.

Out of the current labor force of 3,656, there are 2,808 Kenyan management and construction staff, data from KeNHA shows.

"The construction of the Nairobi Expressway has opened up a wave of opportunities for the local labor force and the local supply chain," KeNHA said.

It noted that by the time the project is completed, tonnes of construction materials would have been used, money that would be pumped into the local economy.

Similarly, the 27 km road that runs from the south to the west of the capital needs some 90,000 tonnes of reinforcement steel and 350,000 tonnes of sand.

Equally, the project will use 4,000 square meters of timber, 700,000 tonnes of aggregates and 7.3 million liters of fuel, notes KeNHA.

For services, equipment leasing will gobble up about 551 million shillings (5 million U.S. dollars) while transportation logistics 6 million dollars.

Informally, the project is benefitting thousands of other people including motorbike riders and food vendors, who feed off from workers at the site.

"Such a project normally creates a huge chain from which hundreds of people benefit directly and indirectly," said Ernest Manuyo, a lecturer at Pioneer Institute in Nairobi.

According to him, while it will cost the country 590 million dollars to do the project, lots of the money would end up in Kenya where suppliers of materials and workers benefit.

"There is also the issue of skills transfer where Kenyan workers are learning from their Chinese counterparts. This cannot be quantified but such an opportunity to learn would not have arisen if the project would not have been implemented," he said.

James Macharia, the Cabinet Secretary of Transport during a recent inspection of the road, said it will be completed by the end of this year as its implementation is ahead of time.

"The contractor has reduced the completion time and we are excited. This will be a game-changer once completed," said Macharia, adding that the road project has benefited thousands of Kenyans in skilled and unskilled employment opportunities.

Once completed, the expressway will ease traffic flow from the south to the west of the capital, reducing travel time from two hours to about 30 minutes. Enditem

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