Kenyans Say New SGR Line through Malaba to Uganda will be Critical to EAC Economy

The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) through Malaba to Uganda and beyond will be a major gamechanger in the East African region.

Kenyans have opined that the framers of the joint plan led by Kenya railway MD Philip Mainga,got it right especially after the Kenya and Uganda corporations agreed to grow the rail freight market share of Mombasa port jointly.

This is after the Kenya Railways Corporation(KRC) and the Uganda Railways Corporation(URC) met and agreed on modalities to implement the project.

The URC Board was also taken on a Familiarization tour of the SGR Dispatch Centre to appreciate the impact.

“This will be a gamechanger and a great opportunity that presents a challenge for industrialisation and more agribusiness ventures that can make the SGR more valuable other than linking the rest of the region to the Mombasa port,”Simon Wekesa from Bungoma said.

The two Boards shared progress made on the enhancement of cross-border operations and areas of possible collaborations, including the implementation of

More urban areas and towns in Kenya will be connected to the Standard Gauge Railway(SGR) under the new deal to extend the modern railway line to the border with Uganda.

According to the plan, the SGR, for which President William Ruto signed a deal for its extension funding, will go through the cities of Nakuru and Eldoret to the towns of Baringo and Malaba for the first phase, which will be referred to as 2B, and Narok, Bomet, Nyamira, Kisumu, and Malaba for the 2C.

It will be in two phases, that is, 2B and 2C. SGR 2B will go through Nakuru, Baringo, Eldoret, and Malaba. The 2C will go through Narok, Bomet, Nyamira, Kisumu, and Malaba.

Aside from the SGR, the government will also embark on the expansion of the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit-Malaba highway.

The process began in 2023 when Kenya brought Uganda on board in the extension of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line to Kampala and beyond.

The two countries inked a deal to source funds to build the rail at the same time so that cargo is moved seamlessly by rail from Mombasa port to landlocked countries.

The port serves Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Burundi as well as northern Tanzania.