The Cabinet has approved the Railway Amendment Bill 2024 which aims at separating Kenya Railways’ business of freight, commuter and land development.
The Bill was approved during a cabinet meeting chaired by President William Ruto at State House Nairobi on Monday, January 15, 2024.
According to a despatch from the cabinet, Kenya Railways is a big landowner in Kenya and most of the land is lying idle.
The cabinet agreed that the idle land will be used to develop railway cities as is happening in Nairobi, and will be extended to other major towns.
The Bill proposes that the private sector, investors and even county governments run the railway cities. In such cases, Kenya Railways will become a regulator.
The Cabinet also approved the Public-Private Partnership Regulations, which are aimed at providing clear guidelines for planning, procurement, management and monitoring PPP projects and incorporating environmental and climate change principles.
The regulations will now be taken to Parliament for approval.
Other agenda approved during the meeting include the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) for national and county governments, implementation of the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) in both the National and county governments, Kenya Social Protection Policy 2023 and Sovereign Green Bond Framework.
Other agenda approved by Cabinet were the Recognition of Prior Learning Policy, the Establishment of the African Legal Support Facility and the Memorandum to Join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
