Residents of Nyamira county are crying foul after it emerged the Sh500 billion Naivasha-Kisumu Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) will not have a station in the region.
Although billed as a route that covers Narok, Bomet, Nyamira, Kericho and Kisumu counties, it has now emerged that the railway does not enter inside Nyamira but passes through its periphery off Ikonge town.
By skipping Nyamira, residents are not only crying over the loss of the business that comes with a train station but also over compensation for property owners whose land will be acquired along the route.
According to the Kenya Railway, the SGR will have intermediary stations in Narok town, Mulot, Bomet and Sotik in Bomet county, Sondu on the border of Kericho and Kisumu, Ahero and the main station in Kisumu.
Leaders from Gusiiland, especially those affiliated to the ruling UDA, had expressed confidence that the SGR will have at least one passenger station in Ikonge.
“Mwanyagetinge don’t worry, SGR will have a station at Ikonge in Nyamira county,” UDA National Treasurer, who is also Kitutu Chache North MP Japhet Nyakundi, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
His Nyaribari Masaba counterpart Daniel Manduku, on Saturday added, “I assure all residents of Gusii that there shall be an SGR passenger Station at Ikonge in Nyamira, which will be incorporated into the final construction designs.”
According to the route map issued by Kenya Railways, the SGR will traverse Narok, Bomet and pass through Ngoina estates as it proceeds to Sondu.
Already, the state has been briefed on the fallout with Transport Cabinet Davis Chirchir seeking to allay the fears with a promise to redesign the route.
President William Ruto is expected to be in Nyamira and Kisii counties for three days later this week, with the SGR route among the pressing issues he is expected to be confronted with.
“Let’s look at the passenger train; the passenger terminus, of course, will be in Kisumu. We will have an intermediate passenger terminal in Narok, Mulot, Bomet, Sotik, Sondu and Ahero. We are going to relook at that, Your Excellency, towards Nyamira,” Chirchir said on Saturday in Kisumu.
Already Nairobi lawyer Dennis Moturi Anyoka has written to the Kenya Railway, on behalf of the county residents, demanding answers on why Nyamira was left out and the justification to the same.
Anyoka wants KR to provide minutes of stakeholder engagement and documents provided during the said stakeholder engagement conducted in Gusii region (Nyamira residents), that informed the decision to exclude the entire Nyamira County and the larger Gusii region from a main station and/or intermediate station for passenger and/or cargo management.
The lawyer further wants documentary justification for placing 3 stations: Mulot, Bomet, and Sotik region, then skipping the entire Gusii region.
“Any other relevant document and/or information that justifies the reason why it was necessary to discriminate the entire Gusii region from the actual economic benefits that would accrue from the construction of the said station yet it is rich agricultural region,” Anyoka’s letter dated March, 19 states.
By linking production zones directly to the rail network, Ruto said last Thursday, the new SGR route will transform the SGR into a two-way economic system, moving not only imports inland, but also exports outward as away of ensuring the railway secures its full economic value.
“This stretch of the railway line will connect our industrial corridor in Nairobi to the agricultural heartland of Narok, Bomet, Kericho, and Nyamira counties, and ultimately the commercial gateway of Kisumu County.”
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