Modernizing the rail system in the East African Community is set for a 2018 completion
The Riek Machar-led rebellion against South Sudan’s government could impinge on the planned China-supported modernization of East Africa’s railway system, the first phase of which was launched in early December 2013, in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa.
While launching the project, officials said the inter-regional trade among the five East African Community countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, along with South Sudan, would get a boost from the improved rail system.
Recognizing the potential harm South Sudan’s conflict might have on the project, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta dispatched his Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Amina Mohammed to work on mediation, together with ministers from neighboring countries under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which brings together eight countries in the East and Horn of Africa.
By the end of the first week of January, peace talks aimed at stemming the conflict took place in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The Kenyan mediation team hoped to reach a deal that would not jeopardize the $14-billion China-funded project headed by the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corp. Currently, the company has only financed the first 450-km section from Mombasa to Nairobi. The three-phase project (Mombasa to Nairobi, Nairobi to Malaba/Kisumu and Malaba/Kisumu to Kampala) is aimed at modernizing the transport system in the East African Community and is earmarked for completion by 2018.
Shrinking distance
The railway project includes development of a new high-speed, high-capacity standard gauge railway, with speeds of 120 kph for passenger trains and 80 kph for freight trains.
At its completion, the region’s freight cargo will shift from road to rail. Experts say this will lower road maintenance costs as well as curb rising road traffic accidents.
According to Alfred Matheka, Managing Director of Kenya Railways, a state agency in charge of railway services, the project will increase and unify the width between the tracks of the railway line from Mombasa to Kampala.
This, Matheka said, will reduce transportation costs, boost annual load tonnage from 5 million to 29 million and cut transit time from Mombasa to Malaba from two days to just hours.
And while the colonial railway built over 100 years ago connected only Kenya and Uganda, the new modern line will also include South Sudan and Rwanda, both of which transport freight through Kenya’s port of Mombasa.
While the old railway was intended to transport people and soldiers to ensure domination of the region by the British, the new railway will place Kenya as the regional hub in East Africa.
“The launch of the project will undoubtedly change the East African way of doing business,” Kenyatta said.
China’s Ambassador to Kenya, Liu Guangyuan, said at the launch ceremony that Kenya is emerging as a leader in East Africa. “Kenya is stepping forward. It [the railway] will be a landmark project both for Kenya and East Africa,” Liu said.
Trade among the members of the East African Community has tripled over the past 12 years, rising from $689 million in 2000 to $2.4 billion at the end of 2012, according to IMF estimates.
Long time coming
Increasing regional competition to attract foreign direct investment has forced Kenya to take the lead to update its railway, which was credited with opening up some of Africa’s most remote hinterland to the outside world.
The journey to the project launch began when Uganda and Kenya cooperated to draw up plans for upgrading the railway that links Kampala to the port city of Mombasa. Despite the good intentions, the two sides have juggled over the matter. In mid-2013, however, the two countries agreed, together with Rwanda, to upgrade the railway system to standard gauge.
According to Michael Waikenda, Head of Communications of Kenya’s ruling National Alliance Party, the scheduled construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project will herald a major economic transformation boosted by an expected commodity price slash.
Once finished, the extended railway network will take freight movement off the roads, which are now estimated to carry 80 percent of all passengers and freight movements in the region.
Officials from the Kenya Road Highway Authority, a government agency in charge of road networks, have always charged that trucks transporting freight across the region damaged roads and led to a high cost of infrastructure maintenance. Road freight is also frequently responsible for road accidents, which kill 3,000 people annually in Kenya and leave many more injured.
Recognizing the importance of the Chinese Government’s support, President Kenyatta noted that the infrastructure project being undertaken by the Chinese firm will not only lower the cost of doing business but will create much-needed jobs.
Liu Guangyuan and senior officials from the China Road and Bridge Corp. assured Kenyans of high quality construction and timely completion of the project.
“We have mobilized all needed resources for the successful project implementation, including staff and finances,” Liu said.
In addition, scholarships will be offered to some 50 Kenyan students to study various courses on railway and port services in Beijing universities.
Vision 2030
The project is also part of what Kenya sees as its national long-term development blueprint that aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrialized, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030 in a clean and secure environment. This is conveyed as Vision 2030.
Gituro Wainaina, Acting Director General of Vision 2030, said in Nairobi that the flagship project will mean Kenyans are set to enjoy much cost saving once the construction of a standard gauge railway - one of the most important Vision 2030 projects - is completed.
