Mombasa Port at risk as audit finds it was used to secure SGR loan
Cargo at a Kenya Ports Authority yard in Mombasa. Kenya could lose the port to China if it defaults in the payment of $3.3 billion owed to Exim Bank of China. PHOTO | NMG
The Kenyan government used the Mombasa port to secure the multibillion-shilling loan it took from China Exim Bank to build the standard gauge railway (SGR), leaving the cash-flush Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) exposed to seizure by the Chinese in the event of a default.
A leaked report by the Auditor-General's office shows that the Kenyan government had in 2013 waived the port’s sovereign immunity in order to use it as a security for the Chinese loan.
