How come the contractor is already working at MaiMahiu, when we were told the final route across NNP has not been decided?. I have not seen any work along Magadi road or Ngong Rd.

Was involved in this project sometime back.
1. The route had already been decided on...the only challenge that existed was Maxwell along Magadi Road..... it was re-aligned.
2. Work is ongoing in Tuala, Rangau, Kandisi, Tunnel, Mai Mahiu
3. Its different companies tasked with different sections, so every team sorts its matters independently.

I saw some massive work site at Suswa. GoK is really intent on finishing this thing. Whether it will help us, remains to be seen

That route via Narok, Bomet, Sotik, Kericho, Kisumu is more economically viable than Nakuru, Salgaa, Eldoret, Kisumu

Mombasa- Nairobi cargo train made its maiden trip yesterday. It had 104 containers.

The president tweeted that the single train was carrying equivalent of what trucks carry in a day.

Thousands of reactions later, not a single person could notice the claim by the president was grossly inaccurate. Trucks ferry between 2000-3000 containers daily.

Tis amazingly easy to confuse people with numbers.

It caught my eye right away. I have learnt to treat official figures with a pinch of salt. But I admire the political class for their audacity to regularly throw figures and get away with it. Remember sonko claiming to be collecting 4 times what Kidero was collecting ? Turned out he is actually collecting less.

If you follow the president on twitter, you will know there are two groups who can never agree on anything.

On this tweet, Uhuru supporters were ecstatic that finally the trucks are off Mombasa road. His opponents are arguing there will be job losses.

The truth is that the impact will be minimal. BTW the old railway has always ferried more than the 104 ferried by SGR yesterday.

How long does it take to load the trucks and for them to reach Nairobi? The guy said they can load up to 8 trains a day. Also remember a container in a train will be able to carry more weight than on the truck. Your numbers look exaggerated, weka link to support the claim.

More importantly is the number/frequency and volume of cargo going TO Msa i.e EXPORTS, not so much what the trains bound for the hinterland will be carrying (IMPORTS).

Unfortunately given our current account deficit, with imports outstripping exports, we will be losing. In simple terms, look at each inbound train consignment as an outflow of our scarce foreign exchange and outgoing as much-needed inflows of FX.

Boss, elections ended. I suspect you saw my name and the topic and you went straight into defensive mode.

My observation was simply about Uhuru's remark that a single train could replace the trucks. That was factually incorrect. I am sure we agree on this.

Now, did the president make a mistake ? I don't think so. He has some of the sharpest minds advising him. Was it a typo ? Absolutely not. I suspect it was very crafty political messaging. You know that SGR has delivered what he said it would deliver. 90% of Kenyans cannot grasp those numbers. The reactions to his tweet were adequate proof.

On the numbers, KPA is about 1.2 million TEUs annually. Our friend @mkimwa is a veteran of long distance trucking. He explained with figures why SGR cannot take over business from the trucks. In case you missed it, even with the current subsidized SGR rates, trucks are still 30% cheaper. And they deliver to the doorstep.

However, some types of cargo will move to SGR automatically. Think steel, iron, printing papers e.t.c. Mainly heavy stuff that exceed the 28T maximum load per container.

Wait, this seems to be a confirmation of what @paper chaser was telling us on another thread!