SGR extension to Kampala to put EA integration on a new level
By Andrew Mwangura
The Standard Gauge Railway extension connecting Mombasa, Kenya’s main port, to Kampala, Uganda’s capital, has long been envisioned as a transformative infrastructure project for East Africa. After years of planning, fragmented development, and the inherent challenges of coordinating major infrastructure across sovereign borders, that vision is finally taking concrete shape.
The project, which follows the Northern Corridor, is widely expected to deliver on its core promise: significantly increasing freight volumes along the route, substantially cutting transport costs for goods, reducing transit times, and easing the chronic road congestion that has for decades choked the region’s trade potential.
As of March 2026, the momentum behind the rail link is undeniable. Kenya’s section of the SGR has been operational from Mombasa to Naivasha for some time, with phased extensions gradually pushing the line toward the Ugandan border. In a development that signals renewed political commitment, Presidents William Ruto of Kenya and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda jointly broke ground in recent days on key segments of the remaining link.
These include the Kisumu–Malaba extension on the Kenyan side, which will connect the line directly to the border, alongside coordinated efforts to advance Uganda’s Malaba–Kampala section, a stretch of approximately 272 kilometres. Uganda had already launched construction on its portion in late 2024, and with financing secured from institutions such as the Islamic Development Bank, full-scale work is now accelerating through 2026.
SGR project schedule
If the current timeline holds, the core segments of the corridor are expected to be complete around 2028, at which point a seamless modern rail network will stretch from the Indian Ocean at Mombasa through Nairobi, Naivasha, Kisumu, and Malaba, all the way to Kampala. From there, the line holds the potential to extend even further, reaching into Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan, thereby integrating a vast hinterland into a more efficient logistics system.
The significance of this project lies in what it replaces. For years, the Northern Corridor has been dominated by road transport, a reality that imposes heavy costs on the region’s economies. Uganda, a landlocked country, relies on trucks for approximately 90 percent of its imports and exports moving through Mombasa. This dependence on road freight is not merely a matter of preference but a structural inefficiency that drives up the cost of goods, adds days to transit times, and contributes to the rapid deterioration of highways.
Freight costs
The SGR extension directly addresses these inefficiencies. The contrast between road and rail costs is stark. Currently, moving a 40-foot container by road from Mombasa to Kampala costs in the region of USD 3,500. By rail, once the line is fully operational, projections suggest that cost could fall to roughly USD 1,500. This represents a reduction of 40 to 50 percent, and some estimates go even further, anticipating that per-ton-kilometre costs could drop toward global rail averages, far below the regional road average of USD 0.16 per ton-kilometre. For businesses, traders, and ultimately consumers, such a reduction is transformative. It lowers the price of imported goods, makes exports from the region more competitive in international markets, and improves the predictability of supply chains that have long been at the mercy of unreliable road conditions, border delays, and the unpredictable costs of long-haul trucking.
Transit time savings are equally dramatic. The current journey from Mombasa to Kampala by road, or through the mixed transport arrangements that exist today, typically takes between four and seven days. In some cases, delays at borders and bottlenecks along the route can stretch this even further. Rail is projected to reduce this to less than 24 hours, cutting freight transit times by approximately 30 percent or more.
For perishable goods, manufacturing supply chains, and businesses operating on lean inventory models, the ability to move cargo from port to inland markets in a single day rather than the better part of a week represents a fundamental shift in what is operationally possible. It allows businesses to hold less stock, reduces the capital tied up in goods in transit, and makes the entire logistics chain more responsive to demand.
Beyond cost and time, the shift from road to rail is expected to drive significant growth in freight volumes. Lower transport costs and faster, more reliable service will naturally attract cargo that has historically been moved by truck, but the effect is likely to be larger than a simple substitution. By lowering the total cost of trade, the railway will stimulate additional demand, encouraging higher volumes of imports and exports alike.
Boon for hinterland
Kenya’s existing SGR, which has already handled millions of tons of freight and delivered measurable cost savings on domestic routes, offers a preview of what regional extension can achieve. But the full impact will be felt most acutely in the landlocked countries of the Great Lakes region, for whom access to the coast has always been a primary determinant of economic competitiveness. By providing a high-capacity, efficient link to Mombasa, the SGR extension effectively transforms Uganda from a landlocked country into a land-linked one, with the potential to serve as a transit hub for its neighbors as well.
The broader impacts of the project extend beyond the freight industry itself. Shifting a substantial portion of cargo from road to rail will reduce wear and tear on highways, lowering government expenditure on road maintenance and reducing the frequency of accidents associated with heavy truck traffic. It will ease congestion in urban centres like Nairobi and Kampala, where trucks have long contributed to gridlock. It will also address logistics bottlenecks at border crossings, where the current system often results in lengthy delays as trucks queue for clearance.
Trade competitiveness
With rail, the potential for streamlined, coordinated border management becomes far more achievable. These improvements collectively boost trade competitiveness, not only for Kenya and Uganda but for the wider East African Community and the Northern Corridor Integration Projects that have long sought to deepen regional integration.
Of course, a project of this scale does not come without challenges. Financing remains a perennial concern, and the construction timelines, while now more clearly defined, will require sustained political will and consistent execution. There is also the question of technical harmonization, with Kenya having built its SGR to Chinese standards while Uganda has at times expressed preferences for alternative specifications.
Aligning these systems to ensure seamless interoperability is a complex task, and the details of how trains will cross the border, how tariffs will be set, and how operations will be coordinated are still being resolved. Nevertheless, the recent bilateral engagement between Nairobi and Kampala, symbolized by the joint ground-breaking, suggests that the political commitment to overcoming these hurdles is stronger than it has been in years.