Our quest to get the information that Kenyans deserve to see

Last updated: 23 September 2021

This page provides updates on the court case filed by Okoa Momabsa and the Institute for Social Accountability (TISA) to obtain contracts, agreements and studies related to the construction and operation of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).

Our original petition was filed on 21 June 2021, and can be read here. The government’s response to our petition – filed Aug. 12, 2021, is here.

The KES 450 billion (USD 4.2 billion) SGR is the most expensive infrastructure project in Kenya’s history, and was financed mostly via loans through the Export-Import Bank of China. President Uhuru Kenyatta promised to release the contracts in 2018, but has yet to follow through.

Despite the enormous cost to Kenyan taxpayers, agreements and studies related to the project and its financing have never been made public.

Our petition argues that Kenya’s Constitution prohibits confidential contracts for infrastructure projects like the SGR, which demand public participation and accountability. Kenyans have a right to know how their taxes are being spent, to participate in those decisions and to hold their government accountable. We can’t participate if we don’t have the basic information with which to form our opinions.

Our video explains more:

Okoa Mombasa’s quest to obtain the SGR conracts stretches back to 16 December 2019. That’s when we filed an Access to Information (ATI) request with the Government of Kenya, seeking the release of agreements, contracts and other documents relating both to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and Container Terminal 2 (CT2) at the Port of Mombasa.

Our request from December 2019 was simple: We wanted the government to #ShowUsTheContracts, as is our right under Kenya’s constitution. Our ATI request demanded these documents from various government entities.

Unfortunately, over one and a half years later, we have yet to receive a substantive response. That’s why we filed suit.

Our original ATI requests and government responses can be found in the table at the bottom of this page.

Note: a number of the responses below are from the Office of the Ombudsman, which is the government agency tasked with ensuring enforcement of the Access to Information Act. These letters were sent to the government agencies at issue, demanding release of the documents. These were mostly ignored.