Kenya woos Uganda to back SGR extension to Kisumu port

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto with Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni at State House, Nairobi, yesterday. [PSCU]

Kenya yesterday appeared keen to woo Uganda back to the standard gauge railway project.

This is after the neighbouring country, Kenya's largest trade partner, appeared to relax its commitment towards the multi-billion flagship project.

The efficiency of the standard gauge railway (SGR) in ensuring ease and speed in transporting cargo from the port of Mombasa to Kisumu and Malaba was among the key issues of discussion between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, during their bilateral talks yesterday.

Museveni is in the country for a two-day official visit, the first by a head of state to Kenya since President Kenyatta was sworn in for his second term last month.

A statement from State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said Uhuru and Museveni agreed on working jointly to take the SGR line from Naivasha to Kisumu and onward to Malaba on the border with Uganda.  

However, there was no commitment from Museveni on whether his country was still keen on moving the flagship project into his country, with State House saying the land-locked country would be served from Kisumu through the Lake Victoria ports of Jinja, Masaka, and Entebbe.

Talks on the progress of the railway line are viewed as a strategic move by Kenya to market the use of the SGR by Uganda, especially after Rwanda seemed to relax its commitment to extend the mega line towards the Uganda border.

SGR lobbying

In May, Rwanda indicated that it was still keen on SGR, saying it had sought a Sh123.5 billion loan from China’s Exim Bank to fund its section of the line.

Kenya is lobbying Uganda to use the extended SGR line, citing drastically reduced average time to import and export goods through the Mombasa port from 11 days to 3.5 days and increased port capacity to 1.65 million containers a year.

With the launch of the cargo rail freight on the SGR, Kenya expects that starting January, most goods will be transported from the Mombasa port by train, cutting costs by at least 30 per cent.

Also discussed by the two leaders were the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, smooth running of the East African Community Secretariat, and the regional peace initiatives in Somalia and South Sudan.

Defence forces

Museveni agreed to convene a meeting of the chiefs of the defence forces from troop contributing countries to discuss progress in the mission before organising a summit of the countries with troops in Somalia.