Kenya’s grand plan to expand SGR to Kisumu, Malaba, and Isiolo at a cost of KSh2.1 trillion
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Government documents reveal a KSh2.1 trillion plan to expand SGR to Kisumu, Malaba, and Isiolo by June 2027
Government documents reveal a KSh2.1 trillion plan to expand SGR to Kisumu, Malaba, and Isiolo by June 2027.
Kenya has set sights on a KSh2.1 trillion plan to extend the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to Kisumu, Malaba, and Isiolo by the end of June 2027, a government document has revealed.
According to the plan, the State Department of Transport will build another 2,746 kilometres of the SGR at Sh2.1 trillion, a move that will push the total spend on the modern railway to more than Sh2.75 trillion.
The plan, lifted from the Jubilee Government’s grand scheme on SGR (so far Kenya’s most expensive project), is part of the Sh3.42 trillion Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset).
Lapsset is aimed at opening up northern Kenya and revamping the northern corridor by spurring movement within Kenya, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.
It is an ambitious scheme that will not only see the modern railway reach the border town of Malaba via Kisumu, as it was initially envisioned, but also Isiolo, Moyale, and the island of Lamu.
The line will move from Mariakani in Mombasa County to Lamu to Isiolo. From Isiolo, the SGR will be connected to the northeastern town of Moyale which borders Ethiopia.
From Isiolo, the government will extend the SGR to Nairobi, connecting the country’s capital city and commercial hub to northern Kenya and finally to Ethiopia.
From Naivasha, the SGR is extended to Malaba through Kisumu.
The bulk of the financing for these additional kilometres of the SGR, around Sh1.8 trillion, will be from external financiers that the document has not revealed while the rest will come from the Kenyan government.
So far, the SGR from Mombasa to Naivasha has been financed by the Chinese at a total cost of Sh656.1 billion.
The longest stretch of the planned SGR, 753.2 kilometres, will be from Isiolo to Nakodok, a small town near the border between Kenya and South Sudan.
The Transport Ministry has cost this phase of the SGR at Sh443.2 billion.
From Lamu to Isiolo, a distance of 544.4 kilometres, the Ruto administration plans to build the rail line at Sh348.7 billion.
From Isiolo to Moyale, a distance of 475.9 kilometres, the country is expected to use Sh317.8 billion to build a new SGR line.
The line connecting Mariakani to Lamu of 325.3 kilometres will cost Sh257.3 billion.
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There will be another line of 278 kilometres connecting Nairobi to Isiolo that will consume Sh239.2 billion.
Phase 2B of the SGR from Naivasha to the lakeside city of Kisumu will cost Sh380 billion while the last leg, 2C, from Kisumu to Malaba bordering Uganda will take another Sh122.9 billion.
The document from the State Department of Transport reveals what appears like a near-impossible feat of the government wanting to complete the entire transport circuit in four years from 2023 to 2027.
Although the ministry’s document indicates that construction of these railway lines is to begin at the start of July this year, no budgetary allocation has been made for the SGR for the next three financial years.
In 2014, the government entered into a tripartite agreement with the governments of Rwanda and Uganda to construct a standard gauge railway from Mombasa through Kampala to Kigali, Rwanda.
However, the SGR ended abruptly in Naivasha with China reportedly declining to finance the last leg of the modern railway after failing to strike an agreement with Uganda.
And now the new administration of President Ruto has rekindled plans to complete the SGR.
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