Ongoing works at the Standard gauge Railway (SGR) Project, Phase 2A of
Nairobi to Naivasha at the Inland Container Deport (ICD) on June 23,
2018. Its construction is funded by China. FILE PHOTO | NMG
East Africa's ambitious standard gauge railway line linking the
port of Mombasa to the landlocked countries in the region has fallen
behind schedule largely due to financing constraints, doubts over its
economic viability, the cost of construction and indecisiveness on the
part of some partner states to build their respective sections.
The
planned 1,500km-long railway from Mombasa to Kigali was expected to be
completed by 2018, but only Kenya has completed the initial phase of the
project from Mombasa to Nairobi.
Although Rwanda is
part of this grand regional rail network, it has focused more on the
Isaka-Kigali railway project seeking to link the capital Kigali with
Tanzania.
The 571-kilometre railway, whose construction
was planned to start last in December, is expected to improve trade
between the two countries.
The project, to cost $2.5
billion — of which Tanzania will pay $1.3 billion and Rwanda $1.2
billion — is estimated to be cheaper by close to $200 million compared
with if Rwanda had opted for the Kenyan route, connecting through
Uganda.
The Ugandan section of the standard gauge
railway was launched in October 2014 and although the country has
completed the feasibility and designs for the 273km-long line between
Malaba in Kenya and Kampala, the construction is yet to begin, with
Kampala attributing the delay to lack of financing and Kenya’s failure
to complete its part of the project by extending the line to Malaba.
The Ugandan section is estimated to cost $2.3 billion.
Rwanda,
on the other hand, has completed the preliminary engineering design of
the new line from Kampala to Kigali, via Mirama Hills, and is seeking
financing. It is understood that Kigali has been in talks with China’s
Export-Import Bank for a $1.2 billion loan.
But even if Rwanda were to get funding, it would not proceed with the project without assurance that Ugandan will do its part.
It
is understood that China had offered to finance the entire joint
railway project connecting Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, but the idea was
dropped after Kampala changed its mind, and gave priority to developing a
railway link to South Sudan instead.
Last year, Uganda’s Finance Minister Matia Kasaija told Daily Monitor
that the government had suspended the standard gauge railway project
and has instead turned attention to revamping the old metre-gauge
railway network.
“It is apparent the SGR is going to
take us a lot of time to complete. First, we have to wait for Kenya to
reach the Malaba border point then we can start,” Mr Kasaija said.
Kenya
has secured Chinese funding to extend the line from Nairobi to Naivasha
in the Central Rift, at an estimated cost of Ksh150 billion ($1.5
billion) and the work on the project is on-going.
The
120km-long Nairobi-Naivasha line is the first of the three segments that
make up the second phase of the railway that ends in Malaba town on the
Kenya-Uganda border.
However, Kenya is yet to secure
financing for the last two segments of the project from Naivasha to
Kisumu and then to Malaba, amid public concern that the country’s
ballooning debt and particularly the Chinese loans, have put national
assets at risk of being seized by the Chinese government in the event of
loan default.
In its first year of operation to June
2018, the Mombasa to Nairobi cargo and passenger services suffered a
loss of Ksh10 billion ($100 million), according to Kenya’s Ministry of
Transport and Infrastructure.
The magnitude of the
losses has raised concerns over the economic viability of the first
major railway transport infrastructure that Kenya has developed since
Independence.
The initial phase of the Kenyan section
of the project, 609km-long line from Mombasa to Nairobi, was completed
in 2017 at a cost of Ksh327 billion ($3.27 billion), with the China Exim
Bank providing 90 per cent of the financing while the remaining 10 per
cent was contributed by the Kenyan government.
The phase between Naivasha and Malaba, whose funding has not been secured, is expected to cost Ksh500 billion ($5 billion).
But
Kenya has argued that it would not be necessary to extend its line to
Malaba if other land locked countries are not committed to the project.
The
standard gauge railway is part of the Northern Corridor infrastructure
project designed to connect Mombasa to Malaba on the border with Uganda,
and onward to Kampala, Uganda’s capital city and eventually Kigali in
Rwanda, with a branch line to Kisumu, and a northern line to Juba in
South Sudan through Kasese and Pakwach.
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