Fresh questions are emerging over a controversial Sh24.2 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) electrification deal after the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) quietly deleted key webpages detailing the project, which was signed in 2018 under the leadership of then Managing Director Fernandes Barasa.
The deleted webpage had announced the signing of a $240 million (approximately Sh24.2 billion) contract between KETRACO and China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited, promising to electrify the Mombasa–Nairobi SGR line and have electric trains running by 2021.
It is now 2026, and the SGR continues to operate on diesel-powered locomotives, raising concerns that the ambitious electrification project may have been nothing more than a paper deal.
Screenshots of the now-deleted page, which have been circulating online, show KETRACO once celebrated the agreement as a major milestone in modernising Kenya’s flagship railway project. The disappearance of the page has triggered suspicions of a possible cover-up and renewed scrutiny of decisions made during Barasa’s tenure.
The development comes amid growing accountability pressure on KETRACO, particularly after Auditor General Nancy Gathungu revealed that the agency owes landowners more than Sh4 billion in unpaid compensation linked to various transmission projects.
At the time of signing the SGR electrification deal in January 2018, KETRACO announced plans to construct 14 substations along the 472-kilometre railway corridor, with completion expected within 28 months. Fernandes Barasa publicly championed the project, touting zero carbon emissions, lower operating costs, faster trains, and expanded economic activity along the corridor.
However, doubts about the project’s feasibility surfaced almost immediately. Then Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina questioned whether Kenya had sufficient power supply and financing capacity to sustain an electric railway. Those concerns were later echoed by then Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia, who told Parliament that the country lacked both the guaranteed electricity supply and the financial muscle to support SGR electrification.
In a little-noticed clarification issued after the signing ceremony, KETRACO admitted that the agreement was only a commercial contract and not a financing deal. The agency stated that the contract would only take effect after the National Treasury secured funding—something that never happened.
“KETRACO has not borrowed any loan for the electrification of the SGR Project,” the agency said at the time, sharply contradicting earlier triumphant messaging suggesting the project was ready for implementation.
Critics are now asking why KETRACO publicly announced a Sh24.2 billion contract without secured financing, and whether the move was misleading by design or a result of gross mismanagement.
The controversy has revived scrutiny of Fernandes Barasa’s tenure at KETRACO, which was marred by several high-profile scandals. Barasa, now the Governor of Kakamega County, previously faced investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over the Sh18 billion lost in penalties related to the delayed Lake Turkana Wind Power transmission line, as well as unexplained excess payments and irregular transactions.
His resignation from KETRACO in 2022, shortly before appearing before Parliament’s Public Investments Committee, was widely viewed as controversial.
The SGR electrification saga also highlights Kenya’s growing embarrassment when compared to regional peers. Ethiopia completed a 750-kilometre electric railway to Djibouti in 2016, while Morocco operates Africa’s first high-speed electric rail. Tanzania and Uganda are also planning electric SGR systems, raising fears that Kenya’s diesel railway could face interoperability challenges in the future.
Despite repeated requests, KETRACO has not explained why the webpage detailing the SGR electrification deal was deleted, who authorised the action, or whether any funds were ever paid to the Chinese contractor. Calls and emails to the agency’s current management went unanswered by the time of publication.
The silence has only fueled speculation that authorities may be attempting to erase public records of a failed or fictitious mega project.
As Kenyans continue to grapple with rising fuel costs and a struggling SGR that bleeds billions annually, the unanswered questions surrounding the Sh24.2 billion electrification deal remain glaring.
Was the project a genuine plan that collapsed, or a costly illusion sold to the public? And why, eight years later, does KETRACO appear more eager to delete evidence than to provide answers?
For now, the deleted webpage has become a symbol of broken promises, missing accountability, and a growing public demand to know what really happened to Kenya’s Sh24.2 billion.
