This archive report was first published on 11 September 2019.
On a recent visit to Kapchorwa, a district in eastern Uganda, we stumbled upon a road construction project that has been largely forgotten since its flag-off last year.
The Kapchrowa-Suam road, which will link Uganda and Kenya, is being built by the Chinese and is expected to be completed in 36 months.
According to officials, the road is a 'game changer' in East Africa and will bring the fruits of regional trade to the doorsteps of millions from Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.
However, the grandiose claims seem suspiciously too ambitious, especially considering the road's route will traverse the existing Endebess-Kitale road into the Eldoret bypass.
The Eldoret bypass involves the construction of a new road, which will expand the transport pipeline to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, and somehow, Ethiopia will get a piece of it through this flow.
But what's more interesting is the fact that the lands of Kapchorwa, Kween, and Bukwo districts, through which the road passes, are still quite fertile despite being battered by environmental degradation.
These districts form part of a belt in Uganda that is selling food to Kenya like it's going out of fashion.
Trade officials in Kampala toasted to some statistics last year that made people very pleased in Ugandan officialdom.
For the first time in donkey's years, Uganda had a favourable trade balance with Kenya — and all its neighbours.
According to Bank of Uganda figures, in the financial year 2017/2018, Uganda had a trade surplus of $122.78 million (Sh12 billion) with Kenya (exports of $628.47 million against imports of $505.70 million).
However, it's worth noting that a large part of that was food, and quite a bit of the food exported by Uganda to Kenya is made possible by Kenyan seeds.
Our mouths and stomachs unite in very complex ways, and the road is also likely to change the food business around the Endebess-Kitale-Eldoret corridor.
There's something else too. With every passing year, Ugandan middle- and long-distance runners are threatening Kenya's athletics bacon.
Those Ugandans who, according to Kenyans, have suspiciously Rift Valley-sounding 'Kip' and 'Chep' names and might well be Kenyans hiding among their cross-border Sabiny cousins and pretending to be Ugandans, are from Kapchorwa-Kween-Bukwo, which will be thrown even more open by the Kapchorwa-Suam road.
Those long-distance world medals... Kenya should begin preparing to share half of them with Uganda.
