Museveni meets Italian investors to build Tororo Majanji railway

By Our reporter

ENTEBBBE – President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has met a delegation of investors from Italy at State House-Entebbe. During the meeting, the delegation led by the Ambassador of Italy to Uganda, H.E Mauro Massoni, informed the President of their intention to fund and execute the construction of a railway line from Tororo to Majanji as well as a port at Majanji.

President Museveni welcomed the idea and said the railway line would cater to the traffic from Northern Uganda and some neighbouring countries.

“That traffic doesn’t have to come to Kampala. It can go straight either to Kenya or to Tanzania,” the President said, adding that although the government is to start the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway, linking straight from the Kenyan border to Kampala, the one from Tanzania will take long to come which means they will be using the lake through Majanji to Tororo,” reads a press statement issued 20^th, May 2024.

Mr. Bloise Vincenzo, on behalf of the Italian Investors, further informed the President that they also seek to establish an academy to train Ugandans on the latest technology in railway line construction and maintenance.

The meeting was also attended by the Minister of State for Investment and Privatization, Hon. Evelyn Anite.

Meanwhile, Kenya has secured a commitment from China’s Exim Bank for the funding of the standard gauge railway line from Naivasha to the Uganda border.

Kipchumba Murkomen, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary of Roads and Transport, said that Pan-African lender African Development Bank and Kenya’s own Railway Development Fund would complement the Chinese as Nairobi and Kampala continue to woo more financiers for the cross-border project.

Mr Murkomen spoke to The EastAfrican as President William Ruto hosted his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni on Thursday at State House, Nairobi, where the two leaders threw their weight behind the joint project, which is meant to go all the way to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The line will provide the required regional competitive advantage to improve regional connectivity with links to Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, and DRC.

There is pressure on Kenya and Uganda to extend it to the Great Lakes region, especially the resource-rich DRC, as Tanzania pushes on with its electrified line headed in the same direction on the Central Corridor.