The East African Community (EAC) Deputy Secretary General in charge of Infrastructure, Productive, Social, and Political Sectors, Hon. Aguer Ariik Malueth, has underscored the importance of the Uganda-Kenya expressway in facilitating movement and trade between EAC member states as he handed over the site for a feasibility study to the consultancy firm GOPA Infra Gmbh of Germany and ITEC Limited of Kenya.
The Kenya-Uganda expressway will involve the rehabilitation of the existing two-lane single-carriageway to bitumen standards and the upgrading of the same into a two-lane dual-carriageway over a 104km stretch.
Speaking during the site handover event that took place in Kisumu, Kenya, on April 24, 2024, Hon. Ariik revealed that the upgrading of the Uganda-Kenya expressway, which stretches from Kakira in Jinja to Kisumu in Kenya via Malaba-Busitema-Busia-Kisiana, is expected to improve transport services to five land-linked EAC partner states, namely Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and the DRC.
“It is our expectation that partner states are also in the process of upgrading the other sections of the Nothern Corridor from Mombasa through Nairobi up to Malaba and from Kampala westwards towards Katuna and Mpondwe so as to achieve a uniform high level of service along the entire corridor,” he said.
Hon. Ariik further disclosed that EAC has 10 cross-border corridors that form the EAC Road Network Project, totaling 15,000 kilometers, adding that the focus of the EAC Secretariat is to promote their improvements for the enhancement of the economic well-being of all EAC citizens.
On his part, Eng. Godfrey A. Enzama, the Principal Civil Engineer at the EAC Secretariat, said that the road project will not only be expected to improve the transport flow but also address the issue of poor road safety along the road.
As part of the project, the EAC secretariat revealed that a $1.4 million feasibility study project funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) will determine the economic viability of upgrading the existing multinational road sections from single carriageway to expressway standards, adding that the studies will be carried out as one integrated project but in two distinct packages to determine the economic feasibility of developing the corridors that connect the two countries to the port of Mombasa.
