President Kenyatta in Uganda for Northern Corridor Summit

President Uhuru Kenyatta has traveled to Kampala, Uganda to attend the 13th Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit.

The summit of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan Heads of State is expected to make a key decision on the route the oil pipeline from Uganda will take.

Kenya is vouching for the Uganda oil pipeline to take the Kenyan route up to the Port of Mombasa while Tanzania wants the Uganda oil pipeline to go up to the Port of Tanga in Tanzania.

The Heads of State will also discuss the construction of the much envisaged Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to connect Mombasa to Kigali.

The Northern Corridor is the transport corridor that links the EAC landlocked countries, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, with the Port of Mombasa.

The corridor also serves Northern Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

In February 2016, Uganda appeared to take a u-turn after what had been touted as successful discussions about a joint pipeline in August last year.

In March, President Yoweri Museveni jetted into the country for bilateral talks on a route for a pipeline to transport the two countries’ oil.

Sources privy to the meeting say Uganda’s hesitation to a joint pipeline with Kenya hinged on challenges they believed Kenya faced with land acquisition as well as security, which they asked Kenya to guarantee, should the joint route be adopted.

Kenya has been pushing for a joint pipeline with Uganda in an effort of reducing the costs associated with construction of the pipeline as well as transportation costs.

The pipeline project was designed to move crude oil from the oilfields of Hoima to the Port of Lamu, through Kenya’s own oilfields at Lokichar.

In a communiqué issued after President Kenyatta’s State Visit to Uganda in August 2015, the two leaders said the development of a crude oil export pipeline needed to be implemented expeditiously to avoid any further delay in commercializing especially Uganda’s petroleum resources which were discovered nine years ago.

“In construction of the pipeline, Kenya favours the “northern route” through Lokichar, because as part of the Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project, it would transform infrastructure and the way of life of the people in the towns and counties across its path,” the statement read.

Resolving the pipeline route is crucial to helping oil companies involved in Uganda and Kenya to make final investment decisions on developing oil fields.