Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame at the Northern Corridor Integration
Project Summit in Nairobi on June 26, 2018. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO |
NMG
Leaders from the region remained non-committal on key regional
integration projects such as a joint pipeline and the single air market
after meeting in Nairobi last week June 26, for the Northern Corridor
Integration Project Summit.
One of the key projects
that the leaders from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan had been
pushing was the Eldoret-Kampala-Kigali Refined Petroleum Products
Pipeline Project, after initially agreeing to jointly invest in it at
the 11th summit in 2014. However, this doesn’t seem to be a priority any
more.
The pipeline was meant to connect with the
existing 14-inch diameter pipeline running from Nairobi to Eldoret and
would have eased the transport of petroleum products to and from Kampala
and Eldoret, including a spur line to Jinja.
Already,
Kenya has upgraded 220km of its 450km Mombasa-Nairobi line at a cost of
$490.3 million, with the fully upgraded line commissioning scheduled for
next month.
Once completed, the new 20-inch pipeline,
an enhancement of the current 14-inch line, is expected to pump between
750,000 litres and 1,000,000 litres of fuel per hour from Mombasa to
Nairobi — effectively cutting down on the number of trucks transporting
oil by road. The current line has a capacity of just 450,000 litres per
hour.
Kenya has also constructed four storage tanks valued at $52 million to keep higher volumes of oil products.
The government has also completed a 10-inch, 122kms $54 million
pipeline from Sinendet to Kisumu, where a new oil jetty worth $17
million is already operational. The country is also set to complete the
construction of a new Eldoret truck-loading facility.
The
feasibility study for construction of the joint refined products
pipeline project was completed in 2015 and was waiting for Northern
Corridor Integration Projects partner states to mobilise funds, but it
seems the project has now been put on hold.
According
to initial designs, the joint pipeline project comprised two sections:
Eldoret-Kampala and Kampala-Kigali. The pipeline was designed to be a
12-inch one, with storage terminals constructed in Kampala, Mbarara and
Kigali.
The whole project was to cost $1.5 billion,
with the Eldoret-Kampala phase costing $400 million and covering a
distance of 350km, while the Kampala-Kigali line was to cost $1.1
billion and cover a distance of 434km.
The project
would also see the construction of mainline pumps, intermediate pump
stations and road or rail loading facilities for tankers.
Open skies
The
leaders also remained non-committal about the air liberalisation
agreement, barely six months after Uganda and Tanzania failed to join
their regional counterparts in signing the Single African Air Transport
Market, which only Kenya and Rwanda signed.
“The Summit
directed the ministers responsible for transport to expedite
implementation to enhance competitiveness and reduce the cost of air
travel in the region.
“The heads of state further
directed ministers responsible for transport to expedite the signing and
implementation of the liberalised Air Service Agreements,” a communique
from the Tuesday meeting said.
Implementation of the
liberalised air service agreements in the region is bound to be
complicated as Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi have raised issues to do
with competition within their markets and how this would curtail their
plans of having a national airline.
The African Union
is banking on the three countries to join the Single African Air
Transport Market by the next summit, which is scheduled for next month.
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