Chinese construction firm makes local Kenyan workers feel like home

For Gilbert Wachira, a workshop foreman who is one of the roughly 9,000 Kenyan workers currently building the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), said his 19 years' experience of working with the SGR contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), has made him who he is today.

"Actually, now I feel part of CRBC, emotionally. It's like my family. You see, my wife works within the same company. I hope my son would get the same chance," said Wachira, who got the Long Service Award of CRBC last year for his good service for the construction firm.

A total of 98 senior staff were feted by CRBC last year, among them 54 have worked for the company for between 10 and 15 years, with the longest employee having served for 28 years.

As CRBC Kenya General Manager Li Qiang noted, all the projects that have concluded have been highly rated due to the hard work of the employees, adding that local employees are the company's greatest assets.

Wachira, who can speak a few simple Chinese words now, said he has trained many Kenyans who came here as green hand workers at first.

"The company supported them, and they learn some knowledge and could use the money they earn to support more people," he stressed.

According to a CRBC report, the SGR project so far has arranged various training programs with abundant content for general mechanics, site personnel, surveyors, engineers, testers and so on, including but not limited to construction safety, technical training, environment protection and health care.

"More people will benefit from the project," Wachira added.

"The SGR is a big project, and we need to do it in a very short time. I know we are going inside those books. We're making history, " he noted.

The company expects to complete 50 percent of the quantity of civil works along the whole line in 2015.

Bessy Rutere, a personnel secretary in the SGR Human Resource Department, said the SGR improves the living of local people along the railway line, and has already benefited the economy a great deal.

She took the town of Mtito Andei as an example. "There were maybe 5,000 houses in Mtito Andei, but now there are roughly 10, 000. More people are coming."

"When the railway is completed, Kenya's economy will go up. There will be easy transportation of goods and passengers. It will also reduce the congestion on the road and improve employment," Rutere said.

She said her husband works for the Southern Bypass in Nairobi which is also constructed by CRBC.

"I feel like home when I work here. The company has done a lot to support local people. We really appreciate it, " said Rutere who has been serving the company for five years.

To date, more than 30 various social programs have been organized by Site Offices of SGR Project, including donation to local schools, road rescue, road repair in communities and AIDS prevention, benefiting more than 6,000 Kenyans.

During the construction of the project, 30,000 jobs will be created for Kenya, and the railway, when completed, will contribute a significant 1.5 percent to Kenya's Gross Domestic Product. Endi