Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “We have contacted the relevant Chinese financial institution and found that the claim that the Kenyan side used the port of Mombasa as collateral in its payment agreement with the Chinese financial institution for the Mombasa-Nairobi railway is not true.” Shah said that while the parties to a treaty have the freedom to agree on the law that would govern the agreement, the choice of the Chinese arbitrator and the specifications that would hold the arbitration in Beijing is “suspicious.” “The agreement is in Kenya, the railway is built in Kenya and the assets they are talking about are in Kenya, so why is it governed by Chinese laws? The apparent disclosure of Kenya`s assets becomes even stranger given the clause that the loan contract would be “regulated and interpreted by Chinese laws.” “Without prior written consent from the lender (China), the borrower cannot disclose to third parties the information of this contract or in connection with this agreement, unless required by applicable legislation,” the confidentiality clause states. The initial SGR loan agreement, signed just over a year after the Jubilee administration took office, will also be kept secret, as indicated in Article 17.7 of the Loan Pact. However, the SGR has become one of the many avatars of Chinese debt in Africa. With loans of $6.37 billion (december 2019), China is Kenya`s largest bilateral lender, with a series of different agreements. The initial agreement for the Mombasa-Nairobi railway company, signed on 11 May 2014, also explains how the pact is governed by Chinese law, with all disputes pending in Beijing. Some of the distorted clauses appear to have been noticed years before the agreement was signed, but the warnings were ignored – before those who caused the problems changed voices later. In October 2009, the Kenyan and Ugandan governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of the Mombasa railway line in Kampala. In August 2013, the governments of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda signed a tripartite agreement to accelerate the development of railways to their respective capitals. “The arbitration award is final and binding on both parties. Arbitration takes place in Beijing,” says the agreement, which effectively blocks other international trade dispute settlement routes.

In the same report, lawmakers recommend that the government renegotiate the RMS enterprise agreement “with plans to reduce operating costs by at least 50%.” It was difficult for RMS operators to suspend passenger transport for almost three months because they were concerned about the possible spread of the pandemic. Attorney General Kennedy Ogeto is calling for the immediate termination of the Kenyan railway contract with the Africa Star Railway Operation Company held in China, two years before the scheduled date of revision of the agreement.