East Africa’s planned railway gets boost as four EAC states join the Kenya-Uganda project

Four East African Community (EAC) member states — Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan — have joined the joint project by Kenya and Uganda to develop a modern railway to ease movement of goods on the Northern Corridor.
The decision was made during a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on SGR held in Kenya’s capital Mombasa on Friday (3 May). In a communique issued after the meeting, the transport ministers from the four countries reaffirmed their commitment to fast-track the completion, including by stepping up the mobilization of funds, of the remaining sections of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project from Naivasha in Kenya to Uganda, Rwanda, DRC and South Sudan. The SGR is a critical artery at the heart of the region’s efforts to reduce transport costs and make East Africa competitive, according to Richard Kabonero, Uganda’s coordinator of the project.
In July last year, Kenya and Uganda revived the near-dead project to build the SGR railway between them but the development of SGR had faced various obstacles, most notably the lack of funds, which has prevented the extension of the rail tracks further beyond Naivasha in Kenya’s Central Rift region. Following the latest deal, Kenya is now committed to resume the construction of the Naivasha-Kisumu-Malaba and Kisumu-Malaba SGR sections starting in July and September 2024, respectively. Uganda has also pledged to start the construction of Malaba-Kampala in September, subject to the availability of resources and the completion of negotiations with the proposed Turkish contractor, Yapi Merkezi.