In spite of talks regarding routing an oil pipeline through Kenya, Total Uganda has finally chosen to direct the pipeline via Tanzania.

“As a company, our position remains that we are going through Tanga. I understand there are issues being discussed but our position remains the same,” Adewale Fayemi Total E & P Uganda General Manager said.

Kenya in March, made every effort to convince Uganda to rethink channeling the pipeline through Kenya, during a meeting the two heads of state in Nairobi.

According to Engineering news, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as well as other officials from oil companies involved in the pipeline debate heard technical presentations by Kenyan and Ugandan energy officials at the meeting.

The presentations had included options of routing the pipeline from Hoima, on Lake Albert in Uganda, through the Kenyan ‘northern route’ through the oil fields of Lokichar. Meanwhile the southern route in Kenya would have been passed through the town of Nakuru, with a loop to Lokichar.

“In the construction of the pipeline, Kenya favoured the ‘northern route’, through Lokichar, because, as part of the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport project, it would transform infrastructure and the way of life of the people in the towns and counties across its path,”Manoah Esipisu, Kenyan State House spokesperson said.

However, the third option, which involved a route from Hoima to Tanga in Tanzania, was the preferred option as a result of the low costs involved as well as less security issues which are at present affecting Kenya.

Anita Fatunji