China's Imperialist Designs Suffer Big Blow As Kenyan Court Declares $3.2 Billion OBOR Contract Illegal

China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative which has been dubbed as an imperialistic project [1][2] by many, has suffered a blow in Kenya after a appellate court declared a $3.2 billion railways contract awarded to China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to be illegal, ANI has reported.

The court while reviewing a High Court ruling said that state-run Kenya Railways violated the country's law in procuring the $3.2 billion Chinese funded Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project which falls under its Belt Road Initiative.

Under this project the Exim Bank of China sanctioned two loans of $1.6 billion each for the construction of a railway line from Mombassa to Nairobi which was later extended to Naivasha.

After a large section of the route was operationalised in 2017, Africa Star Railway Operation Company which is a subsidiary of Chinese CRBC, was awarded the contract to manage operations. The state-run Kenyan railways currently owes $380 million to Africa Star Railway in management fees.