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SGR has been fraught with corruption and outright theft...
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Trains would routinely be artificially fully booked giving the appearance that the trains were packed only for agents to later sell the tickets to desperate travellers at premium rates.

standardmedia.co.ke/article/200137…
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And the press would run with the story

“We are fully booked over the weekend heading to December 25. The bookings have come early after we changed the early reservation period to 60 days from the initial 30," said an official at operator Africa Star

businessdailyafrica.com/news/SGR-fully…
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Further, adults would be allocated the discounted child tickets, which before they were abolished, were being sold at half the regular price. Specifically, under a promotional tariff, adult tickets cost Sh700 against the Sh350 that a child would be charged for the same seat.
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Additionally, in the shambolic ticketing scam orchestrated by employees of Afristar – passengers would find their seats had been reserved and paid for by multiple travellers.
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But the shocker came in the form of supposed cancellations when the passenger train was actually full

“... management had detected inconsistencies in the number of tickets refunded and the actual number of passengers in each train.
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In the financial year ended June 2019, SGR registered losses worth Sh6.8 billion, which translated to taxpayers losing Sh18.6 million every day to sustain the operations.

What's worse, revenues have been at 41% of projections...

standardmedia.co.ke/business/artic…
7/
In 2019, Africa Star sent Kenya Railways a fee note of Sh30 billion, which it claims are pending payments. Sh800 million out of it is made up of penalties for late payments

nation.co.ke/news/Shocking-…
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And it gets worse

Before the operations started, documents show, Kenya was compelled to lend the operator an interest free Sh3.5 billion, according to the documents. A special reserve account was also set up to be maintained with Sh3 billion to cushion the operator.
9/

The contract also put punitive clauses pushing Kenya to start operating the railway by June 1, 2017. Any delay in starting the line would attract a fine of Sh24.2 million a day, the contract shows.
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And worse...

Another curious clause is that the operator can only foot repair bills of less than Sh100,000 in what has left KRC badly exposed to paying for maintenance fees that are expected to pile in the coming years.
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Sources at the Transport ministry said the secret contract was signed at White Sands Hotel in Mombasa in the presence of a handful of officials hours before President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the Madaraka Express Mombasa-Nairobi train on May 31, 2017.
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