Feature: Kenya's railway students aim for brighter future with Chinese scholarship

by Li Li, Li Binian

BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Daniel Muoki, a 21-year-old Kenyan who studies railway technology in Beijing, has a big plan for his future.

"When I graduate here, I will work in Kenya for some years and then I may come back to China for my masters, or even a PhD," said Muoki, with a confident smile on his face.

Currently a sophomore student at Beijing Jiaotong University, a top university in China for railway studies, Muoki is originally from a small village in Makueni county in southeast Kenya.

Situated near a national park and surrounded by thick forests, Muoki's hometown is only 15 km from the Mombasa-Nairobi rail line -- the country's first modern railway built with Chinese standards and technology.

Usually, people in Makueni travel to the capital Nairobi by bus, or through the old railway, which was built a century ago during British colonial rule, and both trips could take at least four hours, according to Muoki. However, with the new China-built rail track set to start operation in June, this journey will be shortened to less than two hours, he said.

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