KISUMU (Kenya): For 43-year-old farmer Rosslyn Akini Abudo, watching heavy trucks loaded with sugarcane glide smoothly along a newly paved road toward a distant factory is a source of immense satisfaction.
“Before, there was no proper road. Transporting sugarcane through muddy fields using donkeys and tractors was pure torture,” she told Xinhua.
Abudo’s farmland lies in Kisumu County, a major economic and transport hub in western Kenya known for its extensive sugarcane cultivation and sugar production. Now, a road project led by the Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) is transforming the region.
The project entails building a 40-kilometer asphalt road cutting across the county’s primary sugarcane-growing areas, connecting plantations directly with local sugar factories. The improved transport corridor is already injecting new energy into local economic and social development.
Abudo, who cultivates two acres of sugarcane, said, “Selling the entire harvest can earn me 100,000 shillings (about 773 U.S. dollars).”
Li Yingtao, PowerChina’s project manager in Kisumu, explained that the road is part of the second phase of the Kisumu-Muhoroni highway project. Locals have affectionately dubbed it the “Sugar Road,” given its route through the region’s major sugarcane belt and its role as a vital transport artery for western Kenya.
Currently, around 35 percent of the project is complete, with all work expected to finish within 18 months. Once finished, the road will link Kenya’s sugar belt to the highway leading to the Uganda border, greatly enhancing regional connectivity.
Emphasizing the company’s focus on localization, Li noted that surveyors, designers, drivers, and equipment operators are all locally employed. The construction process has created over 200 direct jobs, providing tangible benefits to local communities.
“We are training and extensively employing local staff. Upon completion, the project will leave behind road construction skills and a trained workforce,” he said.
PowerChina has previously built 31 rural roads in Kenya, totaling more than 1,580 kilometers. Through these projects, the company’s localized management approach has generated significant employment and trained many technical workers.
David Maganda, the Kenyan government’s supervising engineer for the project, praised PowerChina’s work, noting, “Previous projects were excellent and have become landmark and benchmark projects in Kisumu.”
