Four local staff members have been appointed manager or deputy manager of a Kenyan railway operations company.

The appointments were made during a ceremony at the Kenyan office of the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) on Saturday.

This is the first time Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway's operations company has awarded local staff members such senior positions, according to Li Jiuping, general manager of the Africa Star Railway Operation Company, a CRBC subsidiary also known as Afristar,

"The appointment is aimed at further accelerating the localization process and raising localization quality levels.

"It will also lay a solid foundation for the company's localization and globalization," said Li.

A representative of the newly appointed mangers, Sammy Gachuhi, deputy general manager of Afristar, expressed his gratitude to the Chinese management team and voiced his commitment to run the company soundly.

"We are fully dedicated to the vision, mission, and values of the company and ensuring that we provide safe and secure services with an economic mindset.

"We are determined to working with the government in its Big Four Agenda and Vision 2030 through efficient and dependable standard gauge railway operations and maintenance," said Gachuhi.

To ensure fairness and transparency in recruitment, Afristar advertised the vacancies in local newspapers and its own website in advance.