Uganda has played down any suggestions that the Kenyan government plans to construct its route of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that will be terminated at Kisumu, which is about 139 kilometres from the Kenya-Uganda border town of Malaba.

According to The East African newspaper, Kenya’s transport cabinet secretary James Macharia acknowledged that extension of the line to Malaba may no longer be necessary if landlocked states opted out.

“The decision has not been reached but we have a number of options at our disposal. We can decide to end the SGR at Naivasha or Kisumu but it will still be a viable venture due to the presence of Lake Victoria,” said Mr Macharia.
The SGR Uganda project coordinator, Mr Kasingye Kyamugambi has refuted the claims and said the three countries – Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda – were still committed to the route.

“I think the protocol is clear between the countries and anything that’s outside the protocol must also come through the Northern Corridor Integration Project (NCIP) summit that we use as a fall back arm to know if we are together or not and that is really the presidents’ forum,” he told Daily Monitor during a tour to assess land acquisition in Tororo District on Wednesday.

The ping-pong
Rwanda last week, announced plans to build a railway through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean noting that the route is cheaper and would take a shorter time to complete. This is according to The East African.

The Northern Corridor Infrastructure Summit in November 2013 adopted the construction of the SGR from Kenya through Uganda to Rwanda.

The perceived change of plan by Rwanda prompted Kenya to also mention that it would terminate the SGR in Malaba. However, Rwanda in an article published by the state-owned The NewTimes newspaper has denied claims that it was abandoning the Kenyan route.

“Rwanda is not pulling out of the Kenyan railway route. What I pointed out was that the Tanzanian route is shorter and slightly cheaper compared to the Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway. To suggest that Rwanda was pulling out of one railway route in favour of the other is simply misleading,” Mr Claver Gatete, the Rwanda finance minister is quoted in The New Times.

Uganda is caught in the middle of this yet it would be the link to Rwanda and Kenya. It is also yet to construct a single metre of the railway.

Mr Kyamugambi says the heads of state have to meet and agree on a new protocol, which must come through the Northern Corridor Integration Project summit that is the president’s forum.

Uganda is currently in the process of land acquisition for the eastern route of the railway from Malaba to Kampala, the first phase of the project.

Land compensation
So far, Shs23.3b has been allocated for compensation of land owners between Malaba Town and Tororo District, a stretch of about 47 kilometres. “That’s why we are putting all the efforts to acquire land because once we acquire land, then we can start the construction,” Mr Kyamugambi said.

He said Uganda already has an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction)/Turnkey contract signed between China Habour Engineering and Construction Company, and the Ministry of Works and Transport to commence the development of the Eastern and Northern Routes of the SGR project at a contract sum of $2.3b (Shs7.7 trillion) borrowed from the China’s EXIM Bank.

The railway route
The first phase of the standard gauge construction will cover the Eastern route, with a total railway route length of 273km running from Malaba through Tororo, to Kampala, with 11 railway stations planned along this route.