Kenya, Uganda and China Discuss SGR Funding

Kenya and Uganda’s SGR project may yet secure the funding it needs to go ahead. The countries have struggled to secure the necessary financing to advance the project, which has already linked Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya but was envisioned to provide a 1,500km route from Mombasa to the Ugandan border by 2018.

However, China last week expressed its continued interest in the project at the China-Africa Trade Expo in Hunan Province as the Ugandan delegation met with Chinese state officials, Exim Bank and the Kenya Cabinet Secretary for Transport, James Macharia.

For the project to go ahead Kenya musts secure financing for the next stage of the project, which would extend the SGR from Nairobi to Naivasha. China has previously expressed concern regarding Kenya’s high levels of public debt, deeming the risk of default too high. Without the second stage and the subsequent link from Naivasha to Kisumu, the SGR route is unable to connect to Malaba at the Ugandan border as initially envisioned.