(Posted 07th August 2024)
Turkish company steps in as Chinese’ empty promises evaporate
Uganda seems to have selected a Turkish construction company to build the SGR (Standard Gauge Railway) section from the Kenyan border in Malaba to Kampala, which covers a distance of over 330 kilometres. It has yet to be revealed where the new Kampala station would be as the present station seems unsuitable for that purpose.
Kenya too has made some progress to embark on the construction of the missing link of the SGR railway between Naivasha – the present endpoint – and the border to Uganda, which would finally complete the rail link between the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa to the Ugandan capital of Kampala.
It has been nearly a decade now that the project was initially floated, then planning to link Mombasa with Uganda from where branch lines were supposed to also link South Sudan, Eastern Congo and Rwanda.
Turkey has some years ago also come to the rescue of Tanzania, which equally decided not to continue with Chinese construction companies for their own SGR rail line from Dar es Salaam to central Tanzania and then on to the border with Rwanda. Due to the lack of progress of the line from Mombasa via Kampala to the Rwaandan border did the Rwandan government eventually settle for the link with the Tanzanian SGR to Dar es Salaam, though the Uganda option has remained open as an alternative, should renewed viability be established.
