Sunday 24 November 2019

Poverty after retirement: How a German pensioner makes ends meet

Poverty after retirement: How a German pensioner makes ends meet

Germany's government has approved plans to increase pensions for low income earners. DW spoke to one retiree about living below the poverty line and how such a plan could improve his quality of life.
Sitting in a cafe and enjoying a piece of cake: This is what Hans Rudolf W. misses about his life before retirement. He never imagined that this type of outing would turn into a luxury he could not afford anymore. 
Now the 77-year-old spends most of the time in the apartment that he shares with his wife in the western city of Bonn. With its cozy sofas and lace curtains, the one-bedroom feels like a standard senior household in Germany. But the couple’s money is tight, covering only essentials like food, utilities and insurance.
"Ever since my wife had brain surgery, she doesn't eat very much. And I don’t eat very much either," he told DW. "So in that sense, we can make ends meet."
A lifetime of work, a retirement of poverty
Hans Rudolf W. started working straight out of high school — first at a bank, then as a taxi driver and a custodian. But when he retired in his sixties, all that was left to show was a monthly pension of €335 ($369), which amounts to barely a third of the German poverty threshold.
He immediately requested government help to attend his basic needs. The state now pays him roughly €300 and covers his half of the rent. His wife's welfare covers the other half.
A plan to increase pensions
Cases like these are becoming increasingly common in Germany. Nearly 17% of pensioners are at risk of being poor, according to the German Institute for Economic Research, with half of them seeking government assistance. The numbers will only keep growing. Because pensions are directly tied to the income Germans earned, the retirees who suffer the most are the ones who were part-time workers or those with low salaries.
But on Sunday, Germany's ruling coalition approved a plan that could ease the burden for many of these seniors. The government agreed to implement a basic pension level for low earners who paid into the pension system for at least 35 years. The new plan is set to start in 2021.
The basics of the plan had been previously approved, but the parties that make up the ruling coalition had long disputed one key component: Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) wanted to "test" if pensioners who apply for the help truly need it, or if they have savings or a financially stable partner, for example. The CDU's junior coalition partner in the government, the Social Democrats (SPD), originally drafted the plan and had opposed such a test.
On Sunday, the parties agreed to implement the plan and include a "reasonable" income review as part of the conditions to receive the basic pension.
Between 1.4 and 1.5 million people would be eligible for the benefits, said Malu Dreyer, acting head of the SPD. Women in particular are set to benefit from the deal, she noted, estimating that four out of five recipients will be women. The plan would also benefit low-earners who brought up children or looked after relatives.
--A German pensioner at home in Bonn (DW/B. Christofaro)
Hans Rudolf W. spends most of his time at home — but wishes he could afford take his wife out for a treat downtown
Getting off social welfare
Hans Rudolf W. told DW prior to the agreement being struck that he wanted the basic pension scheme with or without the test. He already has to prove to the state that he is in need of extra money anyway, by showing his savings, insurance and confirmation that he no longer works.
For him, the most important thing is getting a boost to his income high enough to replace the welfare he relies on right now. "I'm not embarrassed to get government help," he said. "But still, there’s always this aftertaste when you say you’re getting social welfare."
Hans Rudolf W. considers himself lucky despite the circumstances. Unlike millions of other retirees in Germany, he does not have to go to the food bank. Sometimes when he does have extra expenses he cannot cover, he turns to local community assistance organizations, which can fill the void for needs like new clothes or mattresses.
Most importantly, he does not feel isolated. He has children, grandchildren and a great-grandchild who visit him often, he said, pointing to his shelves lined with photos of smiling relatives.
Still, it would bring him some much-needed relief to qualify for the basic pension scheme once it is introduced in 2021. "The first thing I would do is take my wife into town," he said. "We haven’t been there in a while."

Monday 11 November 2019

Kenyan tech guru makes huge impact in First World

Prof Washington Yotto Ochieng
Prof Washington Yotto Ochieng receives the Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal in July 2019. It was awarded by the UK’s Royal Institute of Navigation. PHOTO | POOL | NATION
11.11.2019
By ELVIS ONDIEKI
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I am Washington Yotto Ochieng from Kendu Bay. My area of speciality is common sense.” The response from the crowd was spontaneous laughter and applause.
They had flocked a hall in Kenyatta University (KU) on October 25 to listen to a seven-man panel discussion, where Prof Washington Yotto Ochieng was among the panellists. His words struck them as funny because he had oversimplified his credentials, and they knew it.
For a London-based engineer who has helped create mapping systems that are being used in airports in Europe and beyond, who has played a part in developing systems found in top-of-the-range cars, and who has received several engineering awards in England, the crowd knew he was being overly modest.
The product of the University of Nairobi’s engineering class of 1988 had even omitted the “Prof” title in his name, which he has been holding for close to three decades.
IMPERIAL COLLEGE
In fact, his name is written in formal correspondence as “Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng, FREng, BSc, MSc, PhD, CEng, FICE, FCInstCES, FRIN, FCIHT”.
He did not also mention that he is in charge of a large department at the Imperial College, London, a 112-year-old institution that currently has 17,000 students and 8,000 staff, as stated on its website.
At the college, he heads the Centre for Transport Studies and also chairs the Positioning and Navigation Systems team under the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Besides teaching, the centre creates solutions for transport challenges for the United Kingdom and beyond.
As such, many in the gathering knew he had just been cursory with his introduction. After the six other panellists introduced themselves, among them Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga, the audience started asking questions.
Many wanted to know how Prof Ochieng could use his expertise in technology-aided navigation to solve the congestion problems facing Nairobi.
EDUCATION SAVVY
The more education-savvy people in the crowd wanted to know whether he can help them connect with universities abroad so they can get opportunities like the ones he has.
Others wanted him to shed more light on a talk he had delivered.
His talk had delved into various issues. It had a title as long as a tall frame: “Using Navigation Data in Innovative Ways to Solve Real World Problems: Some Lessons for Sub-Sahara Africa.”
In the talk, punctuated with light moments, he had given the crowd a peek into what he has been doing in his odyssey in Europe.
He had informed them about an idea he came up with that revolutionised aviation.
“I worked on a concept that we implemented in Europe. We created the system not just in Europe; but also in the US and everywhere else, and that system is now being used to navigate aircraft,” he told the attentive crowd.
BANK ACCOUNT
Prof Ochieng also discussed another innovation he helped develop. It was a project by one of his PhD students (he says he has supervised 40 PhD students so far) on refining the way electronic mapping systems show locations to a person with a map-enabled device on the ground.
“It took him four years to figure out how to do it so that the next time you are using a satnav [satellite-based navigation] and it says ‘on the next roundabout turn left’, you don’t get disappointed,” Prof Ochieng said of his PhD student.
“If you drive a state-of-the art BMW or Toyota, then you are using our map-matching algorithm in your satnav. So, please remember us (for creating it). I’ll give you my bank account,” he added, drawing laughter.
At the end of his talk, no one was in doubt that he is a specialist in the use of technology to help people explore various places on earth without using physical maps.
But he is more than that.
“I’m a multifaceted person in terms of skills,” he told a local TV station late last year.
“I’m originally in civil engineering, with a surveying background. Then later on I became a systems engineer and ended up being a space scientist. I also have a background in electoral engineering,” he added.
EDUCATION BACKGROUND
His journey to the summit of the engineering world began at Liera Primary School in Karachuonyo constituency, Homa Bay County, where he was born and raised.
After primary school, he joined Kisumu Technical High School for “O” and “A” level studies then headed to the UoN, where he graduated with a first class honours degree in engineering in 1988.
He briefly worked as an assistant lecturer at UoN before he won a scholarship that took him to the University of Nottingham in 1989. A year later, he got his Master’s with a distinction.
He enrolled for a PhD in the same university and, in 1993, he graduated as a doctor of philosophy in civil engineering, specialising in space geodesy (study of shape and the area of the earth).
As a result of his PhD studies, the University of Nottingham engaged him as a postdoctoral research associate, where he undertook research in satellite navigation.
ELECTRONICS
In 1995, Prof Ochieng joined an electronics company in the UK called Racal Electronics as a principal engineer.
While there, he led other engineers in creating the prototype, one of his most celebrated innovations that he was telling the KU crowd about. It is a navigation system called the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (Egnos), the first ever satellite-based system to be used across Europe.
“(It) makes it suitable for safety-critical applications such as flying aircraft or navigating ships through narrow channels,” says a message on a website dedicated to Egnos.
“Consisting of three geostationary satellites and a network of ground stations, Egnos achieves its aim by transmitting a signal containing information on the reliability and accuracy of the positioning signals sent out by global positioning systems. It allows users in Europe and beyond to determine their position to within 1.5 metres,” it adds.
Prof Ochieng said he was the lead engineer in the project, which went live across Europe in 2009 and is being managed by the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). It was certified for operations in 2011 and has been adopted in the US and other regions.
GALILEO NAVIGATION
“It uses geostationary satellites at 37,000 kilometres (above the earth’s surface),” he said. “What I put there is called a system architecture.”
While at Racal, the electronics company that was later acquired by Thales, he also participated in creating the initial systems of Galileo navigation system, which went live in 2016.
Galileo, which is also being owned by the EU, is used for both civilian and military operations and uses satellites to guide a person on the ground to within a centimetre of the location he or she is looking for.
After two years at Racal, Prof Ochieng joined the Imperial College London in 1997, where he has been to date. Being the current head of the college’s Centre for Transport Studies (CTS) places a huge responsibility on his shoulders.
“The CTS is one of the largest transport research groups in the world with more than 120 established academic and research staff, affiliates and research students with a multimillion pounds grant portfolio in the past five years,” says a biography Prof Ochieng shared with Lifestyle.
“It undertakes research in all modes of transport, including planning, demand modelling, design, intelligent systems, operations, logistics, safety, environment and economics,” it adds.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS
Through his position, Prof Ochieng says he has been a principal investigator or co-investigator in many “national and international projects totalling more than £12 million h1.6 billion)”.
As a result of his efforts in the engineering world — which include publishing more than 250 papers, with about 150 appearing in reputable scientific journals — he has received a number of honours in England.
In 2013, for instance, he was elected as one of the 60 new fellows for the Royal Academy of Engineering during an annual general meeting.
“They include some of the UK’s most accomplished engineers from academia and business,” said the academy in a statement announcing the fellows.
“Our fellowship — comprising the UK’s most eminent engineers — provides the leadership and expertise for our activities, which focus on the relationships between engineering, technology, and quality of life,” it added. In July this year, he was a recipient of the Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal — the highest award usually given out by the UK’s Royal Institute of Navigation, a 72-year-old institution.
RECEIVED A MEDAL
The institute said in a statement that Prof Ochieng received the medal “for pioneering research in safety-critical navigation systems”.
With all those achievements, has he ever thought of a solution that can help Kenyans on various areas of transportation?
“It is very important that we look at every case on its own merit. In the case of Nairobi, we’re dealing with a system that has grown over time, maybe in a very controlled fashion,” he told Lifestyle.
“So, we are looking at an improvement fitting the city as opposed to creating a new city. That is a bit more complex. But what we really have to go for is integrated planning. We need to look at how we could look at all the facets, all the elements of the city: Infrastructure, the people, et cetera,” Prof Ochieng added.
He recommended that there be a master plan that can create a local solution to Nairobi’s and Kenya’s other transport systems.
He also stressed on the need to have a master plan that can be discussed publicly so as to have a “city for the people” that will be adopted by all.
“We also need policies that encourage shifts; attitudinal and cultural changes towards accommodating technological solutions,” he added.
HARD WORK
“And the governance structure to deliver it needs to be in place. So, we are very clear on what the issues should be and we’re quite happy to discuss that with the powers-that-be, the relevant authorities and entities, to ensure that it is in place.”
“The warning I’m giving is, that it’s not going to be delivered tomorrow. It’s going to take time but we’re going to make sure that the processes are in place,” he noted.
Asked to discuss more about moving from Kenya to the UK, he noted that it was through hard work that he flew west.
“The actual trajectory was set off by my own initiative. So, one of the things that I’m advising young Kenyans is: Be proactive; look for opportunities. Now in the era of the Internet, there are so many potential opportunities out there. So, go out looking for them,” he said.
HELP MOTHERLAND
And so, where are we likely to find the technologies he has helped create?
“My technologies are everywhere. They’re not just in cars but also in aeroplanes. They are being used in transport systems,” he answered.
He also boasts about a decoder found in vehicles called the CANbus (controlled area network bus) with micro components that allow various components of a car to communicate without the need of a computer.
“We developed that in 2003,” he said at the KU talk. “I believe that most of the vehicles being driven on Kenyan roads today have it.”
Having been involved in various projects in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Russia among other countries, it is evident that Prof Ochieng is living the dream in matters engineering.
“Two weeks ago I was in China and Japan; and two weeks from now I’m going to Russia. I’m working on these systems. Our plan is to create a global capability,” he said.
In his speeches, he fondly refers to his hometown, Kendu Bay, and the intellectuals who have come from there — among them his family members.
As part of his desire to help his motherland, Prof Ochieng is among eight members of the programme steering committee for the five-year Sustainable Urban Economic Development Programme running from 2018.
It is funded by UK Aid to the tune of £70 million (Sh9.2 billion) and its aim is funding 12 towns through county governments — among them Eldoret, Isiolo, Iten, Kisii and Kitui — to support development of infrastructure and projects that improve locals’ livelihoods.
He is also championing the creation of a navigation system for Africa called the African Satellite Augmentation System.
“That will probably be the proudest moment when we switch that on,” he says.

From his office in Switzerland, engineer's dairy venture is just a call away

Joseph Oloo, an engineer, in his farm in Homabay.
Joseph Oloo, an engineer, with his employees (inset) in his farm in Homabay. He injected into the business over Sh4 million from his savings. PHOTOS | SAMMY WAWERU | NMG 
11.11.2019
By SAMMY WAWERU
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Maridi in Homa Bay County is a remote village, with most residents engaging in cane and maize farming.
Sweet potato farming and fishing in the nearby Lake Victoria are the other dominant agricultural activities.
Dairy farming is also taking root in the region, and Joseph Oloo, an engineer, is among farmers leading the way.
The engineer, who works in Switzerland as an executive director at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, has invested heavily in dairy farming.
Seeds of Gold recently caught up with him on his farm near Maridi Girls High School during his August-October holiday break.
At the entrance to his farm, which is christened Williberg, is a woodlot, hosting casualina and eucalyptus trees.
From afar, one also sees fish ponds and the dairy farming project, which sits on a 70-by-20 metres piece of land.
The barn hosts 26 cows, 15 of which are mature animals. He is currently milking 10. Oloo also keeps seven calves and four bulls of the Ayrshire and Friesian breeds.
“There has been a myth that Nyanza in general is not favourable for dairy farming. This region has very conducive climate for milk production, my farm proves it,” says the farmer, who started the venture early last year.
He injected into the business over Sh4 million from his savings. The cash was spent on the barns, five cows that he purchased at Sh100,000 each and labour, among other costs.
“The start was not that easy because the cows I bought were not productive. Some were crossbreeds and were drying off. It was disappointing,” he says, noting that getting quality dairy meal also became a challenge.
Adding to the list of challenges was getting competent workers who had studied animal management including feeding, hygiene and treatment.
“I sought to learn from other farmers. I visited established dairy farms in central and Rift Valley to learn how they were running their entities and the various aspects of management,” he says, adding he bought more animals of Ayrshire and Friesian breeds.
Oloo now grows and makes his own feeds that include silage. “I get between 15 and 20 litres a day from each of the 10 animals I am milking. I sell to neighbours, schools, hospitals and hotels in Homa Bay County at Sh60 a litre. My calculation shows I get a profit of 15 per cent per litre,” he says.
ACCOUNTING AND RECORD-KEEPING
Oloo, 39, says his cows consume about 40 bags of dairy meal per month, each going for Sh2,200.
By producing his own feeds, the farmer says he has reduced operating costs. Williberg Farm sits on 12 acres, with the farmer using four to grow Boma Rhodes, brachiaria and Napier grass.
In addition, he grows maize, which he uses to make silage. He has a chaff cutter that he uses to slice the grasses and maize stalks into tiny pieces.
“The most important thing in growing and producing own feeds is understanding the weather pattern, so that you plant when it rains and have feeds during the dry season,” advises the father of two.
John Momanyi, who works with Sigma Feeds, acknowledges that there are substandard dairy feeds in the market, which result in poor and low milk production.
“Dairy meal should be rich in vital minerals and nutrients for cows. The ratio in which the ingredients are mixed determines the quality and amount of milk produced.”
Williberg Farm also has five fish ponds measuring 20 by 25 metres each, each with a capacity of 2, 000-2,500 tilapia and catfish.
He started with two ponds in October last year and has since harvested over 2,000 pieces, each going for Sh150. The farm is supplied with fresh water from a 30ft deep borehole, which he dug in 2016. The water facility also serves locals.
Oloo, who went abroad in 1999, notes that managing the project from overseas is one of his challenges. “I check on the workers daily, in the morning before reporting to office to find out the amount of milk produced, challenges faced and what each is doing.
During lunch hour, I make a follow-up on how much milk was sold, what has remained and what they have achieved in the first half of the day,” says Oloo, who has four workers, including a manager.
He keeps production, sales, breeding, birth dates and health records of the animals. The farmer has a financial adviser who assists him in accounting and recordkeeping.

Monday 4 November 2019

How Ideas die

4.11.2019
By BITANGE NDEMO
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In 2007, I travelled to South Korea and Malaysia to learn their secrets of rapid development that had elevated them to the status of Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) in just three or so decades.
The idea of replicating the same in Kenya was met with resistance, destroyed and buried.
Both nations had established technology parks supported by universities specialising in applied sciences. In my assessment, we just needed to implement their development blueprint.
At meetings with government officials, many promises were made, leading us to anticipate quick action in the implementation of the “Tigers” model.
The tigers agreed to assist to develop institutions of higher learning that were responsive to industry needs.
Korea promised to build an advanced institute for science and technology that was to be modelled around the Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST).
Malaysia too wanted to reciprocate our hospitality, which we had accorded them when they came for a benchmarking tour in the early part of 1970’s. They had borrowed Nairobi’s Mass Transport blueprint at the time.
As soon as I arrived home, I briefed my Minister then, Hon. Mutahi Kagwe. He instructed that we prepare a Cabinet Memorandum to transfer the Mbagathi-based Kenya College of Communications Technology from the regulator, Communication Commission of Kenya to Government.
COLLABORATION MODEL
We however wanted the institution to be funded privately through industry and university collaboration model in order to avoid the usual inadequate government funding. We named the College Multimedia University as we intended to collaborate with both Malaysia and KAIST.
Although the Cabinet approved the change, the Office of the Attorney General could not agree to a new model of university that did not exist in the country.
Our desire was not to destroy the original intentions of the college that were largely practical training in telecommunications. We wanted to develop an applied sciences research institution to address the problems of a developing country.
In 2008, we created a new Board Chaired by Hon. Kagwe as we tussled with the AG to consider approving a new model of university. We raised some money to start the Madaraka computer assembly plant in line with our desired mission of applied sciences.
Several of Madaraka PCs were sold to government before the institution was transferred to the Ministry of Education, which is assumed to be the only ministry capable of sponsoring a university.
When the institution went to a different ministry, we knew we had lost its control since the mandarins in the ministry couldn’t possibly be expected to appreciate the specialised mission of the university that we had in mind.
We, therefore, chose to seek partnership with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), which was closest to our mission.
We extended the production of Madaraka to JKUAT. As the Ministry of Education brought in their structures, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies lost control of the institution and the dream began to dissipate.
When KAIST tried to bring in their applied programs, this too did not align with our rigid approach to university education.
I made several attempts to re-articulate the original idea but frequent staff turnover at the top, ethnic politics, bureaucratic red tape, and deliberate stonewalling led to a complete destruction of an idea that we still need to make our youth employable and independent.
FELT NOSTALGIC
Last month as I drove from Ongata Rongai and saw Multimedia University, I felt nostalgic about the institution and decided that I pay one more visit. At the main gate a youngish watchman asked me who I wanted to see at the University. I replied, nobody except that I felt nostalgic about this place. Just wanted to drive in and out. He politely responded that they were not allowed to open for people who did not have any business with the university.
Even as KAIST gets ready to put up a Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology campus at Konza, MMU may never be what it was envisaged to be under government funding. The idea is dead for now. It serves as a lesson why we must re-think higher education, its funding, regulation, programs and its future.
There are multiple ways of funding higher education and in most cases not all are effective. In some countries, they use a mixture of models like cost sharing, host-proprietor-university-user funding where all stakeholders contribute, contextualised formula-funding, largely based on consideration of individual cases and university industry collaboration model – the model we desired for MMU.
We were sure that this model would work since there was value for industry and that the future of learning was going to be mostly multimedia content in virtually every sector hence the reason why we named the institution MMU.
The future of learning will mostly be online using multimedia tools especially now when the country is in the process of implementing Competence Based Curriculum. It is never too late to reconsider a good idea that may change the future of our country.
The writer is a professor of entrepreneurship at University of Nairobi’s School of Business. @bantigito

In its Wikipedia page, the institution’s original idea is absent. It reads:

MMU was founded in 1948 when the institution was founded as Central Training School to serve as East African Post Training School before changing to Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC). This was after the collapse of the East African community in 1977. In 1992, the college was upgraded to Kenya College of Communications Technology under KPTC and became a subsidiary of Telkom Kenya (TKL) after KPTC split into Postal Corporation of Kenya, Telkom Kenya Ltd and Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). The college became a subsidiary of CCK after the privatisation of TKL in 2006. In 2008, it was upgraded to Multimedia University College of Kenya as a constituent college of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. MMU is going to be involved in the development Konza Technology City. MMU Kenya has adopted a similar strategy as MMU Malaysia in which MMU Kenya is to accelerate the development of Kenya's Information and Knowledge sectors. This is one of the pillars meant to transform Kenya to a middle-income economy under Vision 2030. SOURCE

Sunday 3 November 2019

Top activists' meeting at TUM called off for 'security reasons'

2nd November 2019
By ANTHONY KITIMO
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TUM anti-AGR protest
Economist David Ndii, Muhuri chairman Khelef Khalifa, Maina Kiai and constitutional lawyer Yash Pal Ghai are pictured outside the Technical University of Mombasa, where they had planned to hold a meeting but were barred for security reasons, November 2,2019. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP  
Activists led by constitutional lawyer Yash Pal Ghai, economist David Ndii and lawyer Maina Kiai, were on Saturday barred from accessing the venue in Mombasa County where they were to address a meeting on regional issues.
The team was blocked from entering Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), where they were to speak about matters including a dwindling economy that has been linked to the government's move to compel importers to haul their cargo to Nairobi using the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
Police manned the gates of the university to keep them from entering.
"SECURITY REASONS"
Officials of Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri), the host of the meeting, said they were asked to call it off for "security reasons".
"We received communication from TUM that they had cancelled the agreement to host us due to security reasons. The management claimed students might be radicalised and cause tension," Muhuri chairman Khelef Khalifa told the media outside the university.
"We had hired the hall and made all preparations, which was costly. We shall take legal action to recover the money."
TUM's Vice Chancellor Leila Abubakar did not respond to the Nation's requests for comment on the matter.
CONSTITUTION
After they were denied entry into TUM, the group resolved to hold a peaceful demonstration outside the university against the government’s move.
Prof Ghai said the meeting was to address devolution, economic issues and the shrinking civic space in the country.
"Being one of the architects of the current Constitution, I can say what is happening in counties is not what we envisaged.
"The Constitution is not being implemented [correctly] as resources meant for county residents are not utilised as required by the law."
He further said the government has no right to remove Mombasa residents from areas where they enjoy natural resources.
CRITICISM
The team furtheraccused the government of frustrating civil societies to keep them from criticising it.
“We are here to support civil society groups. We shall form more groups to ensure the resources of each county are protected. Today we have the Okoa Mombasa group but we shall move to each county to ensure equity in resource distribution,” said Mr Kiai, who is also a human rights activist.
Mr Ndii said introduction of the SGR freight service was unconstitutional since the Constitution and a number of treaties allow each importer to choose a mode of transport.
“We know the agreement between the Kenya Ports Authority and the Kenya Railways Corporation on a take-or-pay deal.
"We shall continue to say this; that the SGR is uneconomical and cannot pay its debt as it is, so we want the government to make the SGR efficient and [allow] importers to opt for it instead of compelling them [to use it].”