Kenya said it is in talks with the UAE to extend a railway line to Uganda and South Sudan. “We are exploring a partnership agreement with the United Arab Emirates to extend the standard gauge railway,” President William Ruto said on Tuesday after meeting the Gulf country’s Minister of Investment, Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, reported by Bloomberg.
Kenyan President William Ruto
As part of the plan, Kenya has conducted a feasibility study on expanding the SGR because of its ability to promote regional integration and facilitate trade. In October, Uganda signed an agreement with Yapi Merkezi Holdings AS to finance its portion of the SGR, which will connect its capital Kampala to the border with neighboring Kenya.
Another line that was supposed to connect Uganda to a Kenyan port failed to reach their shared border when China stopped funding the rest of the project after it had built nearly 600 kilometers of the railway. That has forced Uganda to rely mainly on freight to access the port. Ruto is in Abu Dhabi for a two-day summit.
Kenya-UAE trade pact signed
Earlier, he and UEA President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan led the signing of a trade pact aimed at deepening trade ties. The East African country is also seeking a $1.5 billion loan from Abu Dhabi to help bridge a budget deficit.
Cash from the oil-rich emirate would boost Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves and further support the shilling, which has already been one of the world’s strongest performing currencies against the dollar for the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gulf countries, including the UAE and Qatar, have spent some of their petrodollars on deepening their influence in Africa, countering dominant powers such as the US, China and Russia.