Ruto, Museveni break ground on Kisumu-Malaba SGR projected to cut East Africa freight costs

Kenya and Uganda have broken ground on the 107-kilometre Kisumu-Malaba section of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), completing what the government describes as a seamless rail corridor stretching nearly 1,000 kilometres from the port of Mombasa to the Ugandan border.

President William Ruto presided over the ceremony at Kibos in Kisumu County on March 21, 2026, alongside Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

The groundbreaking is the third major SGR milestone within days, following a ceremony on March 19, 2026, for the 264-kilometre Narok-Kisumu section, known as Phase 2B.

That segment is designed to connect Nairobi's industrial corridor to farming counties including Narok, Bomet, Kericho, and Nyamira before terminating in Kisumu.

Together with Phase 1A, which covers the original 472-kilometre Mombasa-Nairobi line whose construction began in 2014 and was later extended 120 kilometres to Suswa in Narok County, the three phases form the full Mombasa-Malaba corridor.

The government projects that freight costs will fall by at least 40 per cent per tonne per kilometre once the network is operational, while transit times are expected to drop by nearly 30 per cent.

At present, cargo takes an average of 80 hours to travel from Mombasa to Malaba and over 100 hours to reach Kampala.

Transport and logistics costs currently account for between 30 and 40 per cent of the final value of goods moved along the corridor.

Since it began operations, the existing Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has carried more than 15 million passengers and moved over 45 million tonnes of freight across eight years, according to the government.

The corridor is also being positioned as an economic zone, with plans to develop industrial parks, logistics hubs, and commercial centres along the route through private sector investment.

Once the Kisumu-Malaba section is complete, it will connect Kenya's rail network to Uganda and, through existing regional agreements, to Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic.

Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda have previously signed an SGR Protocol and Tripartite Agreement to govern the cross-border system's development and management.

The current project traces back to 2008, when the late President Mwai Kibaki and President Museveni jointly committed to building a modern rail corridor linking Mombasa to Kampala, with branches to Kisumu and Pakwach in Uganda.

For western Kenya, the railway is expected to ease the movement of agricultural produce, including tea from Kericho, dairy from Bomet, and fish from Lake Victoria, to markets in Nairobi and the coast.