The Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has helped power Kenya's economic growth by transporting goods and people since its launch five years ago. The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR, mainly financed by China and built by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, began construction in 2014 and went into operation on May 31, 2017.

With a total length of 480 kilometers, the SGR has halved the travel time between Kenya's two most important cities, from an average of ten hours to approximately five. Over the five years of operation, the railway has handled nearly 7.8 million passenger trips and shuttled over 1.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).