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A freight train runs on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway track in Mombasa, Kenya, on July 27, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)

“The SGR (Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway) has created efficiency and employment, and improved the manufacturing sector and industrial sector onto another level. It has now played a key role in the business world,” said Philip Jamuhuri Mainga, managing director of state-owned enterprise Kenya Railways Corporation.

by Xinhua writer Bai Lin

NAIROBI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — The Chinese-built Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has played an important role in boosting Kenya’s economic growth, a senior Kenyan official told Xinhua here in a recent interview.

“The SGR has created efficiency and employment, and improved the manufacturing sector and industrial sector onto another level. It has now played a key role in the business world,” said Philip Jamuhuri Mainga, managing director of state-owned enterprise Kenya Railways Corporation.

“The SGR is going to contribute 2 to 3 percent to Kenya’s gross domestic product,” Mainga said.

The 480-km Mombasa-Nairobi SGR, a mega project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative linking the largest port in East Africa to Kenya’s capital, was built by China Road and Bridge Corporation and officially opened to traffic in 2017. There are 17 freight trains transporting bulk cargo in a seamless and safe manner on a daily basis.

A passenger train runs on the Tsavo River Super Major Bridge near the Tsavo National Park in Kenya, on July 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)

Mainga said over the past five years, the freight trains have moved an estimated 20 million tons of bulk cargo. The route came particularly in handy amid the COVID-19 pandemic by facilitating transportation of critical medical supplies.

“I must say we are lucky. We are doing more exports and diversification over goods than before. We are seeing a dynamic change on what the SGR is doing in terms of exports,” he said, adding the SGR has enhanced Kenya’s trade with neighboring countries and offered an economic lifeline to member states of the East African Community.

The official mentioned in particular the 120-km Nairobi-Naivasha section of the SGR, which is instrumental in opening northwestern Kenya to trade and investments.

Apart from freight trains along the route, there are also on average six passenger trains operating daily, carrying 7,000-10,000 people per day.

The passenger trains have transported more than 8 million people in the past five years, which shows their popularity, Mainga said.

A freight train runs on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway track bypassing the mangroves in Mombasa, Kenya, on July 27, 2022. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui)

“It has contributed to the tourism sector of this country, because we take a lot of people to Mombasa to do business, to work, to relax, and to enjoy. So when you see these, you see the Kenyan government and the Chinese government work together. We want to thank both governments for the support they have given us,” he said.

The official said the SGR is also benefiting local people as skills transfer has so far reached 80-90 percent.

“Now our people are able to run the operations, to drive their locomotives, to carry on with signal work, to repair and maintain our wagons,” Mainga said.

The SGR is a successful project, a project with a future, and a project that has transformed the country, he said.  ■

Azimio IT specialist has been dragged to court over failure to repay debt.

George Kariuki Njoroge, the Group Managing Director of East African Data Handlers and the Azimio La Umoja IT specialist has been sued by a company, Aworky General Supplies Limited at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Nairobi for falsely obtaining Kenya Shillings Two Million with a promise to pay back only to refuse to pay the money.

George Njoroge approached one of the Company Directors of Aworky General Supplies Limited for a soft loan with a promise to pay but after the funds were advanced to him, he went missing.

George Njoroge refused to honour the promise to repay .
East Africa Data Handlers Services Limited through George Kariuki Njoroge has further been sued by the same Aworky General Supplies Limited for ordering office furniture and other goods worth the sum of Kenya Shillings Two Hundred and Five Thousand but later failing to pay for the delivered goods .

Azimio South Africa chapter on Sunday facilitated civic education in Nairobi to drum up support for Baba na Mama.

Elvis Mboya representative of Azimio South Africa Diaspora said that the exercise aims to increase turnout of voters in order to guarantee a first round victory for former Prime minister Raila Odinga.

According to Mboya, the former Prime Minister is the only hope for Kenya because he has the heart for Kenya.

Elvis Mboya Represented Azimio South Africa Chapter led by Chairman Geoffrey Simiyu, Head of Communication Clifford Derrick and Janet Okeyo.

The below is attributable to Acting Spokesperson Shejal Pulivarti:‎

On July 23 in Kenya, Administrator Power started the day traveling north to Turkana County. Throughout the day, the Administrator heard from men and women who have lost all or most of their livestock and livelihoods to the devastating drought. She visited Kachoda Health Dispensary, a health facility that treats sick and malnourished children under five. The Administrator spoke with staff and health experts about how to tackle both the immediate and long-term impacts of the unprecedented drought and food insecurity crisis on children’s nutrition. She also met with mothers who have children suffering from acute malnutrition and who have been treated with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) products that are manufactured in Kenya and purchased through USAID-funding.

Administrator Power then toured a World Food Programme food distribution site that provides assistance to drought-impacted families, particularly during lean season when people cannot access enough food to meet their needs. The food distributed today complements cash assistance USAID is supporting for vulnerable drought affected families in Kenya. The Administrator spoke with community leaders about actions needed to build resilient and nourishing livelihoods that can withstand future shocks. Administrator Power met with community leaders at a water site in Kachoda that was rehabilitated with USAID support and that provides clean, safe water to people and livestock. She met with Turkana County officials and farmers at Kachoda Agronutrition Farm where they are providing training and farmland to people impacted by the drought to encourage income and nutrient diversification. 

In the evening, the Administrator met with leaders at Sanergy, an American company providing sanitation services in informal settlements and producing organic fertilizer for Kenya’s small-scale farmers. She reiterated USAID’s commitment in working with the private sector to strengthen markets, provide access to sanitation, and to treat and reuse waste in climate-friendly ways.

 For just over a month, from 7 May to 16 June 2022, Fatumo Yusuf Diriye spent 3 hours every day, walking to and from the nearest water source, 6 km away, to fetch water for her family. As she could carry only 2 ‘jirigaans” or pails of water at a time, and had to wait her turn in a long queue, her family had to use this water sparingly. They resorted to using ashes or sand to clean their hands. 

Fatumo knows that having to deal with unsafe water has contributed to her 3 children under 5 falling sick with diarrhoea many times before. On many occasions, she has had to rush them to the nearest health facility for support. This is one burden that families like Fatumo’s, who depend on her daily earnings from a local market, can do without.

Visit from the Government and WHO officials 

One day, early in May 2022, Fatumo heard there was a team of high-level officials from the Government and World Health Organization (WHO) visiting the camp where she lived, in North Galkayo, to assess the effects of the ongoing drought. Even though she could not go to see them, later on, she heard a few community members had requested the heads of the high-level team to support them to fix 2 water pumps which were not functioning for longer than she could recall. The Salama water pump, which is a borehole close to Fatumo’s home, was one of them, and the Halaboqad borehole was the second one that hadn’t been functioning for quite some time. 

The visiting high-level team was led by HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur, the Federal Minister of Health and Human Services, and HE Abdi Nasir Yusuf Haji, the Vice Minister of Health for Puntland state. Representing WHO, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean, and Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative to Somalia, were also part of the team. 

Delivering swiftly on a promise 

Fatumo, who has been living in a camp for the internally displaced since 2017, had heard the WHO team agreed to provide support, but was not sure how this would pan out. To her joy and surprise, within a few days, an expert came by to assess the Salama borehole. Around a month later, the Salama borehole was functioning again.    

“Our lives have changed thanks to having water now from the Salama borehole, for drinking and also for all our household purposes,” says Fatumo, as it takes her just 30 minutes to fetch water now. The Diriye family can now collect at least 4 buckets of water, as their source, the borehole, is just above half a kilometre away. Hers is just one of the families living in one of 6 camps and 2000 households that now have access to clean water from the Salama borehole. 

With WHO’s interventions to rehabilitate both the Salama and Halaboqad boreholes, 19 716 people now have access to clean water. This will translate to clean drinking- water, fewer waterborne diseases, like cholera and diarrhoea, healthier populations, and better sanitation. By protecting their families from preventable diseases, Fatumo and many parents like her can devote their time and resources to raising their families instead of coping with the stresses related to fighting diseases.

With the support of USAID, the WHO country office in Egypt is conducting a nationwide injection safety project to help assess and improve injection safety practices among national hospitals and health care facilities in Egypt. 

The safe use of injections is essential to avoid the transmission of life-threatening infections and to protect patients, health care workers and the community from avoidable risks, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic during which the number of injections being administered every year have significantly increased in Egypt and globally. 

In early June, WHO Egypt conducted assessments of injection safety practices among health care workers in public hospitals in 8 governorates across Egypt.  

Prior to these assessments, WHO held an orientation workshop for surveyors from the Hepatitis Control and Infection Prevention and and Infection Prevention and Control Central Unit at the Ministry of Health and Population to discuss the implementation process of the project and conduct pilot testing of the WHO-developed web-based application for an auditing reporting system that will facilitate data entry and retrieval.

As the WHO global campaign on injection safety recognizes staff training as a core principle, an expert team from the WHO country office will also be supervising a capacity-building training programme that is scheduled to take place in July in order to address any shortcomings identified during the assessment visits. 

Over the years, WHO has been working closely with stakeholders in the area of infection prevention and control, occupational health, and laboratories, including senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Population, academia, and policy-makers to support the implementation of safe injection practices and guide the formulation of national policies, including Egypt’s national injection safety policy that was launched in 2018. 

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Sunday, 24th July 2022, commissioned the refurbished Asomdwoe Park, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of the 3rd President of the 4th Republic, the late Professor John Evans Atta-Mills.

Speaking at the ceremony, President Akufo-Addo noted that the commissioning of an infrastructural project by Government should naturally be a joyous occasion, and should elicit the display of pomp and pageantry in recognition of the feat achieved.

“But today’s event is not one of those normal occasions. Exactly ten years ago, a truly tragic incident occurred, one we had never witnessed, and hope will never reoccur in our history, certainly not in our lifetime – the death of a sitting President in office, the death of the 3rd President of the 4th Republic, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills.

According to President Akufo-Addo, he was a contemporary of the late President at the University of Ghana, were members of the same hall, Legon Hall, and played in the same University football team.

“As fate would have it, we ended up belonging to and leading different political organisations. We contested the presidency in 2008, and even though some will say it does not count, I won the first round and he won the second round, the round that really mattered. I was looking forward to a third round in 2012, when the Almighty called him home on 24th July 2012,” he added.

The President noted that, sometime after becoming President, he became aware of the sad state of Asomdwoe Park, and, in 2020, he received a request from the late President’s energetic Communications Director, Koku Anyidoho, who runs the Institute named after the President, for the assistance of Government to rehabilitate the facility.

“I agreed, and, subsequently, I instructed the Coastal Development Authority to undertake a thorough rehabilitation of the Park, with the close co-operation of the Institute,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo continued, “It was not right that the Park had been allowed to deteriorate considerably over the years since his burial in 2012, and I am happy that it was under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, allegedly his ‘fiercest critic’, that Asomdwoe Park has been elevated to a status befitting the final resting place of a President of the Republic of Ghana.”

The President explained that he did so not to exploit or take advantage of any so-called divisions in the National Democratic Congress, stressing that “those alleged divisions are not of my making, and do not, in any way, inure to my benefit.”

He also addressed the “unfortunate accusations” levelled by some against Government about the supposed desecration of the tomb of the late President in the process of rehabilitating the Park.

“Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is good to note that these false, malicious statements have been firmly dispelled and debunked by the Coastal Development Authority, through the agency of its CEO, Mr. Jerry Ahmed Schaib, in a public statement under his hand,” he stated. 

Reiterating his sincere condolences to the former First Lady and spouse of the late President, Ernestina Naadu Mills, to the entire family, to the National Democratic Congress, and to the people of Ghana “for their great loss”, President Akufo-Addo stated that “the man from Ekumfi Otuam will not be forgotten”.

 The National Union of Eritrean Women organized two weeks training on leadership to 80 members from various Government institutions as well as board members of the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students and National Union of Eritrea Women.

The training was provided by Dr. Haile Neguse, Eritrean expert residing in the US.

Speaking at the concluding event of the training held on 23 July, Ms. Tekea Tesfamicael, President of the National Union of Eritrean Women, said that the training was part of the effort the national union has been exerting to develop the capacity of women.

The trainees on their part commending for the opportunity they were provided called for the sustainability of the program.

Similarly, the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students organized training on social science to 99 high school students including 55 female from all sub-zones in Anseba Region.

The training that was provided from 14 to 22 July included political and ideological concept, philosophy and religion, youth and national service, National Charter, nation and nationalism, youth and environmental conservation, as well as information technology.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Azazi Bereketeab, head of the union branch in the region, called on the trainees to apply the training they were provided in the nation building process.