The Kenyan government has published three unforeseen contracts, using which, a railway, a passenger and a freight service were funded, designed and built by China.

Experts on China and Africa said the revelations were unprecedented, given the secrecy surrounding Chinese loan contracts. Furthermore, because China is Kenya's top trading partner, the African country now owes China an excessive bilateral debt.

"Chinese financial institutions provide financing support for China-Kenya cooperation in accordance with internationally accepted commercial and market principles, which alleviated Kenya's lack of funds and enhanced Kenya's capacity for independent development," a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry said, reported the New York Times.

Chinese banks fined Kenya 1.312 billion Kenyan shillings in the year ended June for defaults on loans provided to build the standard gauge railway (SGR).

Kenya tapped over half a trillion shillings from Chinese lenders, led by the Export-Import Bank of China, to fund the construction of the SGR from Mombasa to Naivasha.

China, which accounted for about one-third of Kenya's 2021-22 external debt service costs, is the nation's biggest foreign creditor after the World Bank. Kenya spent a total of Sh 117.7 billion on Chinese debt in the period, of which about Sh 24.7 billion is in interest payments and almost Sh 93 billion in redemptions, according to budget documents.

The deal to fund the first phase of the SGR, Kenya's single-largest infrastructure project by cost since independence, saw China overtake Japan as Kenya's largest bilateral lender. Kenya's debt increased more than four-fold to Sh 8.58 trillion under the Kenyatta administration.