The government is putting in efforts to ease movement, with BRT buses being one of the key projects. Hower, the James Macharia-led Transport Ministry is also planning to import 11 used trains from Spain, some as old as 25 years, in a Ksh10 billion deal that includes purchasing high capacity buses.
According to Sunday Nation, the low capacity diesel trains are expected to arrive in the country from June this year.
In the deal, approved by Cabinet, a single train is priced between Ksh71 million and Ksh137 million.
The deal was brokered in a trip to Barcelona in September 2018 by a team of 11 officials drawn from Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), the World Bank and the Ministry.
The team was led by Transport Principal Secretaries Charles Hinga and Eshter Koimett.
A ministry official is reported to have colluded with a KRC technical consultant to sugar coat proposal on the trains whose technical assessment had not been conducted.
The trains were manufactured by Spanish company Construcciones and Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) between 1994 and 2003.
A source privy to the deal intimated that only four of the units were in proper condition.
According to a consultant’s report, they will require substantial provision of spares which may be out of market.
The Spanish trains can only comprise a maximum of three coaches with each carrying 128 seated and 130 standing passengers at full capacity.