REUTERS
A railway that runs from Kenya to Uganda will be extended to Rwanda by March 2018 as part of efforts to deepen trade ties in the region. The countries, part of the East African Community trade bloc, plan to extend the line that starts at Kenya’s Mombasa seaport and upgrade the existing route.
“The ministers responsible should put in place a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the [railway] project remains on course, within budgetary provisions,” according to the statement signed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame in August 2013.
Upgrading the track between Mombasa and Nairobi was expected to start by November 2013. The three presidents earlier witnessed the commissioning of a new $67 million berth with capacity for bigger vessels at the port of Mombasa. The port is the gateway for landlocked East African nations, but it is heavily congested.