• Uganda resumes Mombasa rail freight after 7-month upgrade
• Rail cuts transit time to 3 days, eases road congestion
• SGR promises faster trade but faces major funding gaps

Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) has resumed rail freight services from Kenya's Port of Mombasa after a seven-month suspension for modernization work.

The resumption of rail transport will cut transit times to three days, down from an average of five days by road, according to URC. The move is expected to alleviate logistics costs, reduce delivery delays, and ease congestion on the highway network.

Landlocked Uganda transports nearly 90% of its imports through the Kenyan port. The rail restart is part of a broader strategy to mitigate logistics constraints while the regional Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is being built.

The modern SGR line, which is partially operational in Kenya, is projected to reduce the Mombasa-to-Kampala transit time to less than 24 hours and lower freight costs by an estimated 40%. The SGR is intended to reshape the Northern Corridor, a strategic multimodal route linking the Kenyan port to landlocked Great Lakes nations, including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan.

However, the SGR's full realization remains contingent on securing financing. Kampala has yet to raise the nearly $3 billion required for its section, and Nairobi has not completed the segment that is meant to reach the Ugandan border.

Henoc Dossa