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    A New Chinese-Funded Railway In Kenya Sparks Debt-Trap Fears

    China has become the biggest lender on the African continent. The Nairobi-to-Mombasa railway is a symbol of Kenya's ambitions. But critics say China is saddling Kenya with unsustainable debt.
    by Eyder Peralta Oct 08, 2018 5 minutes
    People cheer and throw confetti after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta flags off a cargo train for its inaugural journey to Nairobi last year at the port of the coastal town of Mombasa.

    The Standard Gauge Railway station in Nairobi is easily the most impressive public building in Kenya.

    While a lot of Kenyan government buildings are drab and functional and date back to colonial days, this station is adventurous. It's all gray and modern. Geometric shapes form an abstract locomotive, and red neon announces the "Nairobi Terminus."

    The train runs 293 miles from Kenya's capital city to the port of Mombasa and back twice a day and represents the biggest infrastructure project since Kenya's independence 54 years ago. The Chinese financed it; a Chinese company built it; and the Chinese will operate it for many years to come.

    The project, which , has not only come to signify Kenya's ambitions, but also China's ambitions on the African continent. In the past decade, China.

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