Kenya commits to SGR reaching Malaba
Minister for Works and Transport Monica Azuba (left) and her Kenyan counterpart James Macharia sign a joint communiqué affirming the connection of the Standard Gauge Railway to Naivasha-Malaba and Malaba-Kampala last week. COURTESY PHOTO
What you need to know:
Financing. Uganda awaits funds to start its stretch of the railway.
Kampala. The construction of the Ugandan stretch of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has been the subject of speculation with talk implying that Kenya will only stop in Kisumu. Kisumu is about 100Kms from the Kenya – Uganda border town of Malaba.
Kenya is about to clinch financing for the Naivasha-Kisumu link.
There has been speculation that Kenya will only stop at this point.
However, Mr James Macharia, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Works insists that Kenya has no intention of terminating the SGR in Kisumu.
“We’ve agreed that we need to sit with the financiers and have these joint commitments that we’ve agreed upon. That way, the issue of a hanging railway – Kampala to Malaba or Nairobi to Kisumu – will be no more. It will be a joint seamless connected railway. We must synchronise the completion of the project. In terms of viability, we see it as one project - A to Z -, initially being Mombasa to Kampala,” he told reporters last week.
Last week, the SGR cluster of the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects (NCIP) met in Kampala and on the sidelines, the Works ministers for Uganda and Kenya issued a joint statement on the project.
The financiers of the project, EXIM Bank of China, are said to only be considering granting Kenya more financing for to Kisumu, only if there is a commitment to reach Malaba.
“The commercial contract up to Naivasha has been signed but the application has not yet gone to China. Once that is done, we shall fast-track it. In a few weeks, once the application goes to China, then we’ll have resolved that problem. The problem is not financial closure for Uganda. When Kenya applies, China’s EXIM insists they want to ensure that we are together and that we’ll finish together,” says Ms Monica Ntege Azuba, the Works minister.
Last month, Kenya launched its first phase of the SGR project with freight and passenger services being launched between Nairobi and Mombasa.
Already, according to Mr Macharia, 28,000 people are ferried daily on the train. However, cargo numbers are yet to significantly pick up.
“This is not a one country project. It is actually a four-country project and we shall say it is completed when all the countries are connected. The SGR has been proved to be critically important to the economic development of the region,” Macharia said.
Tanzania route
Uganda is also considering a route through Tanzania, via Lake Victoria. Ms Azuba noted that they were considering this route as an alternative but that their focus remains Kenya, where 90 per cent of Uganda’s import pass through.
“Uganda is a landlocked country; when you have a house, you’ll have two doors, the main door and the back door. So even with the SGR, through the Northern Corridor is a shorter route and we’ve already started on it. We’re committed to the northern corridor. We are also looking at the southern corridor as another route,” she said.
Tanzania, which is not part of the NCIP is currently seeking a financier for the SGR project after President Magufuli canceled any prospect of Chinese funding.
The government has been courting the Turkish government for financing but has also made its own financial commitment to the project.
