Looking at the amount of money that the government spend on Chinese owned Construction companies, can’t we have our own equivalent of China Roads and Bridges - Which BTW is owned by the Chinese Govt?
Deputy President (DP) William Ruto on Friday commissioned the construction of a Sh2.3 billion bridge in Kilifi County.
The 220 metres bridge will be constructed by a Chinese firm; China Railway 10. The DP said it will ease transport within Magarini and Malindi.
If we can get such a company and give it a budget of 100 Billion a year, we’ll save a lot of forex, and employ many Kenyan engineers while also provide an avenue for technology transfer
^Not to mention the level of improvement in local technology. It would be easier for such a Corporation to “Adopt” an Engineering university department and work with it on Research and Teaching. A Corporation like the Numerical Machining Complex can focus on Electrical and Mechanical engineering and Appropriate technology.
I guess it would work for locally funded projects. But for any projects funded by foreigners, they normally insist that we use their companies. Thats why the deal is so sweet for them even with low interest rates. The deal is sweet because:
they give us money which almost all of it will be spent in their economies. Take SGR. Chinese company are supplying equipment that is made in china (e.g locomotives, coaches along with any other equipment needed)
we still have to pay them back with interest
they are creating a now silk road (in china’s case). Yani that railway will be used to extract kenyan raw materials, sell to china who will in turn sell us more finished products.
There is a debt trap involved in the whole project. One only needs to look at Srilanka and zambia. Srilanka has handed over a port to china for non payment of loans and zambia is completing handing over strategic assets like the national power generation company cause they cant service their loans.
Brilliant!! This is the kind of thinking that will help kenya progress we need a state corp that will even go to S Sudan and build roads there, instead of us exporting foreign exchange and jobs to china we would create jobs for Kenyans and earn forex in the process.
The military in asian countries do this all the time without necessarily setting up a company. All of Pyongyang is built by the military and it looks like Manhattan they even call it pyongyattan.
when i was a young boy, in the early 90s there was a ministry of public works, they had camps in almost every district, they owned and operated road
repair equipment, from tippers, earth movers, graders etc…
Then after some years the equipment were piled up and were not working anymore, Moi and his govt run the whole thing down… i guess it was after the golden-berg scandal…
It’s very sad that the same motherfuckers that looted this nation to the ground, Gideon Moi, Ruto etc are the one we are being given as options for 2022
Funny how things remain the same.
Fifty odd years ago Tom J. Mbúya called for the same. A G.o.K owned construction company to put up KICC amongst other buildings…but sh°t happened.
I read this thing sometime back in Mutahi Ngunyi’s " 5 Pillar" for the rebranded NYS .
Such products can be undertaken by KDF and NYS…if only we read and implemented the good plans and policies we have for our institutions
The original budget for the SGR for instance was kshs. 220 billion.
But with what the status quo loves best, the [SIZE=5]"FOREIGN INVESTOR"[/SIZE] you just inflate the cost to kshs. [SIZE=5]327 billion[/SIZE]! And voila! You have 100 billion, pocket money!
With that extra 100 billion, you can campaign for presidency in 2017… bribe Raila after he loses yet again… build a palace in Eldoret with 5 mini palaces for the fruit of your balls, and with a huge, ugly water treatment plant in the center of the compound to provide water for washing your anus… you can even start construction on your own city… buy several helicopters… buy a new party headquarter… ETCETERA ETCETERA!!
There are so many things one can do with kshs. 100 billion! So many. And all you need is a pliable foreign investor.
Only a complete idiot would deny him or herself off 100 billion bob. And the following year just stick that 100 billion tab to the idiots who elected you and call it austerity measures i.e. fuel tax, mpesa tax and other stupid taxes ; pure genius!!
And not only is there in place a NYS or a huge army that can undertake civil works in a convinient budget, but there’s already in place a Ministry of housing and a Minstry of works with support staff!
But hapana afadhali Chinaman.
A keen eye will notice how he recently moved housing to Macharia’s transport docket. Ndio ukora ianze proper. 1 million koto and Cmax homes!
Shida yetu we will use those corporations as cash cows for weekend heists. We are not disciplined enough to run successful government parastatals. All of the parastatals now are plagued with corruption, nepotism, favoritism, tribalism etc and the management is used for political ends.
And who is the appointing authority? The reward master who uses parastatals to reward buddies? Waititu shika maji… Buzeki shika hii… pipi ya msando shika hii…
Then what we need is to find a way to reduce or expose corrupt practice or go 50/50 with private sector.
Think of it this way, if safcom was 50% owned by GOK can you imagine the profits that would be going to the treasury?