Kenya: Chinese win Lamu port deal

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled a $480 million (R5.1 billion) construction deal on Friday with China Communication Construction for the first berths in a proposed multibillion-dollar port, the day after ordering that vast tracts of “stolen” land be repossessed. The planned $24bn Lapsset – the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor – expected to be finished by 2030, is intended to serve much of east Africa. But the area has been hit by deadly attacks, largely claimed by Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants, but which Kenyatta has blamed on “local political networks”. On Thursday, he said the massacres had been fuelled by companies seizing land “under dubious and corrupt circumstances” in 2011 and 2012. Lapsset will include a sea port, railway, airport, oil pipelines and a refinery. – Sapa-AFP