Rail blueprint boosts growth in East Africa

Desai said: "Standard-gauge rail will increase mobility, reduce road congestion, remove major inefficiencies in the movement of both people and goods. It will reduce the costs of doing business, which will in turn lead to the development of a competitive private sector platform, key to championing local, regional and global investment in Kenya. This will increase wealth creation for the people of Kenya.

"Transport plays a key role in manufacturing. With improved efficiency in mobility, manufacturers will be able to produce goods at a lesser cost, and in effect the cost of products will go down, making Kenyan goods more competitive in the region and beyond," Maina said.

More than 10,000 Kenyans are working on the project now, and up to 30,000 are expected to be employed before it is completed.

"We have about 1,900 Chinese experts working with them," Maina said.

"When we have Kenyans learning from Chinese experts we will be able to participate more in the construction of phase two (from Nairobi to Uganda)," Maina added.