Kenya, Uganda open rail extension burdened by Chinese debt

The Standard Gauge Railway, built from 2013 to 2019, connects the Kenyan port of Mombasa to its capital Nairobi, and on to the lake town of Naivasha, but China refused further lending before it could be extended to Uganda as planned. Kenya now spends roughly $1 billion a year servicing Chinese debt, most of it borrowed to build the railway. That is far more than the line generates in revenue -- around $165 million last year -- even if passenger and cargo numbers have been growing strongly over the past year.