Uhuru is trending on Twitter in Kenya as some people ask whether President Uhuru Kenyatta taking his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni on a train ride was a stunt to get more money from China.
The two leaders on Thursday travelled some 480km (298 miles) on the Chinese-funded Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Kenya’s port city of Mombasa to the capital, Nairobi.
They said they want to construct a railway line from western Kenya to Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
Kenya has also offered landlocked Uganda land to build a dry port in Naivasha town, about 75km (47 miles) from the capital, Nairobi,
A tweeter said Kenya appeared to have persuaded Uganda to back the railway project.
Jeremy Mutiso @JeremyMutiso tweeted: “THREAD: Last year, Uhuru went to China hoping to close a Sh380 billion loan for Naivasha-Kisumu SGR. China declined saying the project is not feasible if it doesn’t reach UG. Kenya had to convince UG to board the SGR agenda. This is the basis of the current Uhuru-Museveni deals.”
Other tweeters think Kenyans were duped into the SGR deal with Uganda and that there’s more than meets the eye.
Wanjikũ Revolution™ @WanjikuRevolt
tweeted: “Museveni did not
play Uhuru. Muthamaki is not clueless. You & I were played to finance the
next phase of the “SGR” White elephant.
Naivasha land is Kenyattan land…
The Chinese want the railway to go to East DRC for minerals… Remember Uganda
and Rwandan spat?#UshenziKE!”
Jeremy Mutiso @JeremyMutiso added: “Uhuru’s generous offer of a dry port land in Naivasha to Museveni is strings attached. Soon, the son of Jomo will assemble a delegation to China to ink the loan, having met conditions set by Beijing.”
-BBC
