Syokimau Railway Station to be Commissioned on Tuesday

The New Syokimau  Railway Station
Image Courtesy of transport.go.ke

President Mwai Kibaki will on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 commission the Syokimau Railway Station along Mombasa Road, marking another milestone in efforts to realize various projects envisaged under the Vision 2030 Economic Blueprint.

The contractor, El Noor General Contractor Ltd handed over the 400 million-shilling station to the Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC) earlier this week, and it will be officially open to the public from Tuesday.

Shelter Afrique awards Stima Investment Sh395m loan

illustration of a four bedroom unit at the Stima Village

Pan-African housing and habitat development financier Shelter Afrique has awarded Stima Investment a 395 million-shilling development loan.

The loan will be used to support Stima Investments ongoing Syokimau gated community housing development project dubbed Stima Village.

“The funds are earmarked to co-finance the development comprising of a total of 156 housing units,” said Shelter Afrique Managing Director Alassane Ba, during the signing of the loan.

The partnership between the two comes on the backdrop of a strategic corporate undertaking to change its capital mobilization strategy by incorporating the use of both debt and equity instruments to finance its operation.

The Stima Village project is one of Shelter Afrique’s major middle-level investments aimed at increasing Kenya’s supply of affordable housing units for its growing middle class among other social classes.

76 maisonettes, 40 three bedroom and 36 four bedrooms units are expected to be built at the ongoing Stima Village through the loan.

Stima Investment draws a pool of over 4000 members from Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), Rural Electrification Authority, Kenya Electricity Transmission Company, and Stima Sacco among others.  

Source: CapitalFm.co.ke 

Nairobi rail transport: Syokimau Station

The proposed station
source: vision2030.go.ke

The 2.2 kilometre railway line that connects the newly built Syokimau station with the old Embakasi line is complete. It has cost Ksh 200 million and is expected to be fully operational by the end of July. This comes after the last extension of the Kenya-Uganda railway line [Kisumu-Butere] by the British colonialist back in the 30s.

The Syokimau station will be the first of 10 similar hubs that Kenya Railways plans to construct in partnership with private investors. The other 6.5 kilometre rail line will connect Embakasi to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and construction will start July 2013.

Nairobi commuter rail system is expected to interlink satellite towns which include Kikuyu, Kiserian and Ngong and later converge at the Central Business District.

Unfortunately, the construction of the railroad will have the residents of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums evicted.

Other reforms that the government is opting to take in line with vision 2030 include the replacement of the 14 seater matatus with higher capacity public service buses and a mobile taxi service that work without parking areas.