This archive report was first published on 19 October 2019.
Kenya Railways has announced plans to launch a new inland container depot at Mai Mahiu, which will handle cargo destined for Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The depot is expected to be operational by January 2020.
The new depot is part of Kenya's efforts to become the transport corridor of choice for neighboring countries. The government has allocated Ksh6.9 billion ($65.7 million) for the construction of the depot and related facilities.
According to Kenya Railways acting managing director Phillip Mainga, the depot will be built in the next three months. 'Our priority now is the ICD which we hope to complete in three months. The contractor is already on the ground,' he said.
The SGR freight service, which will be used to transport cargo to the depot, will take 10 hours from Mombasa to Suswa and will target to transport two million tonnes of cargo annually. The service will also reduce the number of trucks on the busy Kamandura—Mai Mahiu—Narok road and cut the number of hours it takes to transport cargo via road from Mombasa to Kampala from 36 to 24.
However, the push to haul more cargo through the SGR is bound to intensify confrontations with transporters who reckon the SGR is killing private businesses, particularly trucking and container freight stations in Mombasa. 'It’s unacceptable to kill one sector of the economy in the name of building another one,' said Kennedy Karisa, the Truckers Association of Kenya secretary general.
