France, March 21 -- The Standard Gauge Railway, built from 2013 to 2019, connects the Kenyan port of Mombasa to its capital Nairobi, and on to the lake town of Naivasha, but China refused further lending before it could be extended to Uganda as planned.

Kenya now spends roughly $1 billion a year servicing Chinese debt, most of it borrowed to build the railway.

That is far more than the line generates in revenue - around $165 million last year - even if passenger and cargo numbers have been growing strongly over the past year.

A report by Kenya's auditor general last year found more than $260 million had been wasted just on penalties and interest from late debt payments. Generation-defining project

Yet despite the controversy over the ...