So I hear that the standard gauge railway (SGR) will not be able to repay its own loans and that it will require you & I to fork out another sh 15billion to foot the bill!! damn.
Nway, the thread discussion is another mega project. Lamu Port, South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor(LAPSSET) with the main components being Ports, pipelines, roads and railways.
Let’s look at developments that have taken place since LAPSSET ground breaking on 2nd March 2012:
a) 15 December 2013.- Civil war erupts in oil rich South Sudan. Pipeline was to go to their oil fields.
b) 29 September 2015- Ethiopia enters into a deal with Djibouti to construct a pipeline.
c) 24 February 2017- South Sudan signs a deal with Ethiopia to construct oil route.
d) Oil prices have fallen globally.
e) South Sudan economic crisis makes some of these projects not top priority.
f) Uganda decides to use its TZ route for its crude oil.
So is this project viable? or we’ll be left with a situation similar to what is happening in Sri Lanka -now famous for the world’s emptiest airport?
Umesema watu wa northern Kenya (2/3 of the country) wasitengenezewe highway to link Lamu, Garissa, Isiolo, Nginyang, Lokichar and Lodwar. Umesema mafuta yetu ya Turkana ibebwe na ngamia hadi lamu
Here is LAPSSET corridor route. The pipeline was also intended to be used by South Sudan to transport their 500,000 barrels of oil per day. A lot of money if we would have charged them a conservative US$8 per barrel , a third of what Khartoum bills Juba. However, that option is gone. So the pipeline project is exclusively to be used by Turkana oil fields. Note that in the LAPSSET there is a plan to construct a railway line which runs parallel to the oil pipeline up to Turkana. Why invest heavily in pipeline when rail can be utilised?
Anyway, bottom line, people have to go back to the drawing board. A lot has changed since 2012.
I don’t think the primary objective of the project was kusaidia for “watu wa Northern Kenya”. They just happened to be along the corridor route. The bigger picture is revenues Kenya would get from her neighbours. Same as SGR. The bigger picture here is Uganda and Rwanda.
Hii maneno is marred with misinformation of epic proportions. In Prof. Ndii’s article some 9days ago he said the SGR bit of LAPPSET made more sense overall for its potential to open up the northern frontier and if it was up to him he would choose that over the Msa-Nbo-Ksm route.
But why do that and leave our primary imports route with a rail network that is slow and pulls little cargo?
And do not forget this SGR projects are not a Kenyan issue only, this is an EAC project to have all member countries upgrade their transport networks to ease cost of transportation and make trade inter-africa trade easier, Rwanda and UG already accepted to begin construction as soon as ours gets to the border.
