Jamlik Mwangi Kariuki, a Kenyan student at Beijing Jiaotong University, says he was inspired by a reply from Chinese President Xi Jinping to a letter from representatives of Kenyan students and alumni at the university, and now wants to serve as a bridge to bring China and Africa closer together.
"Last year, as a representative of the Kenyan students at Beijing Jiaotong University, I started the initiative and then wrote the letter to His Excellency, the President of the People's Republic of China," Kariuki said.
Kariuki's journey to China and his correspondence with the Chinese president began in earnest with the building of the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), one of the flagship projects of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
"So when this was being constructed, we had a very good railway, a modern railway. But Kenya lacked the capacity to be able to operate and maintain the railway. So, that's when the government of Kenya and the government of the People's Republic of China came together and decided that they're going to sponsor 100 young Kenyans to come and study engineering courses, so that they would go back and be able to run the operations and maintenance of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway. I was one of them," Kariuki said, referring to the railway by its Mandarin name.
Thrilled by the opportunity to study overseas, Kariuki and other students wrote a letter to President Xi last year to express their gratitude.
"When you are thanking somebody, most often you give them a gift or something. So I sent him a train ticket from Nairobi to Mombasa and invited His Excellency President Xi Jinping to experience the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway," he said.
In January this year, the students were delighted to receive a warm reply from Xi that encouraged them to continue contributing to the friendship between China and Kenya, and between China and Africa.
"I just want to become a bridge. And how do I become a bridge? I must be able to be conversant to the culture of both, let me say Africa and China. I have to be conversant with the knowledge gaps. What knowledge does China have? What can you get from China? What can China get from us? This exchange, I want to facilitate such type of exchange," Kariuki said.
The Chinese-built SGR linking Kenya's capital city Nairobi and major port city Mombasa opened to traffic in May 2017.
Data shows that the development of Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has created over 50,000 jobs and cultivated more than 2,800 high-quality railroad technology and management specialists for Kenya. In addition, it was estimated to have contributed to about 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Kenyan student encouraged to build bridges between China, Africa following Xi's reply
