中国合伙人
China-Africa Salon: A stadium in 2 years, a bond of 42 -- Chinese builders share their Kenya story_我的网站
一 |
"The schedule was extremely tight -- just two years, while comparable projects elsewhere usually take more than three," Du Xiao, project manager of the stadium for China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), told Xinhua in a recent interview. "There is a very real sense of pride."
According to Du, the stadium has no running track, bringing spectators close to the pitch. Its seats take on the green, red and black of Kenya's national flag, while the facade features the traditional shield and spear of the Maasai people.
Upon completion, the stadium is set to be renamed the Raila Odinga International Stadium, in honor of Kenya's late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The roof adopts a cable-supported grid system erected with a "cable-first, steel-after" method, which Du said is the first of its kind independently designed and built by China. Without temporary steel supports, 48 radial cables are tensioned to lift six ring cables before steel trusses are laid on top, saving at least three months of construction time, with displacement controlled to the millimeter. In 2025 alone, some 1,300 containers of materials and equipment were shipped from China to the site.
For CRBC, the stadium is only the latest chapter of a much longer story. The company built its first road in Kenya in 1984, and over 42 years, its footprint has extended from roads to bridges, ports, railways and buildings.
Du Shan, the executive general manager of CRBC Kenya office, recalled that before 2008, Nairobi was cut apart by three rivers and a cross-district trip could take more than three hours. After CRBC completed the ring roads, the journey now takes about 50 minutes. The company is also expanding the A8, a national trunk road, from two lanes to four and six, she said.
On the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, wildlife corridors were built with a clearance of more than six meters, "so that giraffes can pass with their heads held high," Du Shan said.
"Working overseas, we should not arrive thinking about changing the place. We should first adapt to and learn from the local community," he said. "What many projects truly open up is not just roads and railways, but trust between people."
The stadium sits near Kibera, Kenya's largest informal settlement. Du Xiao remembers a local young man named Sammy, who had no skills when he applied for a job but volunteered for the project's equipment training and became a pump truck operator. "I asked him why he worked so hard. He said, 'I never thought I would have the chance to touch these machines. Now I feel I can support my whole family.'"
According to Du Shan, the project recruited nearly 500 young workers from the neighborhood during construction, many of whom have qualified as assistant engineers, while about 280 local youths were mentored into technical backbones during the construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi railway.
More than 350 CRBC employees have worked overseas for over a decade, and each year the company awards them a gold medal for long-term dedication, she said. "The medal is not only an honor, but also a kind of warmth. Because 42 years -- it has truly not been easy."
When his child was born, Du Xiao was at a critical stage of the Nairobi Expressway project and could not make it home. "People in overseas engineering live in two worlds -- the project site on one side, the family on the other. All you can do is try to do a little better on each side," he said.
"Maybe I will one day leave this country. But this stadium will remain," he said. "I came here to build projects. Then I found that this country has shaped who I am today."
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二 | STRASBOURG, France -- Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy, was awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize on Thursday.The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.Other finalists this year included Vilma Núñez de Escorcia and Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez — two emblematic figures in the fight for the defense of human rights in Nicaragua — and a trio of women from Poland, El Salvador and the United States leading a fight for “free, safe and legal abortion.”Amini died on Sept. 16, 2022, after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said that day will “live in infamy,” adding that her ”brutal murder" marked a turning point.“It has triggered a women-led movement that is making history,” she said as she announced the awarding of the prize to Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.“The world has heard the chants of ‘Women, Life, Liberty.' Three words that have become a rallying cry for all those standing up for equality, for dignity and for freedom in Iran," Metsola said. Women have played a leading role in the protests, with many publicly removing the compulsory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.The 27-nation EU has imposed sanctions on Iranian officials and organizations — including ministers, military officers and Iran’s morality police — for human rights abuses over the protests.“We stand with those who, even from prison, continue to keep women, life and freedom alive,” Metsola said. "By choosing them as laureates for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2023, this House remembers their struggle and continues to honor all those who have paid the ultimate price for liberty.ʺAmini died three days after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police. While authorities said she suffered a heart attack, Amini’s supporters said she was beaten by police and died as a result of her injuries.Her death triggered protests that spread across the country and rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s four-decade-old Islamic theocracy.Authorities responded with a violent crackdown in which more than 500 people were killed and over 22,000 others were detained, according to rights groups. The demonstrations largely died down early this year, but there are still widespread signs of discontent. For several months, women could be seen openly flaunting the headscarf rule in Tehran and other cities, prompting a renewed crackdown over the summer.The award ceremony will take place on Dec. 13.Last year's prize was awarded to the people of Ukraine and their representatives for their resistance to Russia’s invasion and defiance during the ongoing war.___This story corrects the spelling of the winner's name to Mahsa instead of Masha.。
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