Fast forward, from 12th century to 21st

Massive port, road, rail and pipeline project soon to sprout in islands with ancient Swahili town

Lamu Island off the Kenyan coast is home to the Lamu Town UNESCO World Heritage Site, known both locally and internationally as one of the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlements in the region, dating at least to the 12th century. This, coupled with the picturesque setting of the town with its narrow streets, donkeys as the major mode of transport and beautiful sea front, has endeared many tourists to the Lamu Archipelago over the years.

This, however, soon won't be the area's only claim to fame as a result of the ambitious Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor Project. The largest infrastructure and transport project in East Africa would link the new Lamu Port on the Kenyan coast with rail, road and an oil pipeline to neighboring South Sudan and Ethiopia.

There is no existing rail transport network linking the three countries. The road network is almost nonexistent as the Eldoret-Juba highway is in a deplorable state. But the governments of Kenya and South Sudan already have a $1.3 billion fund approved by the World Bank to rehabilitate a linking road. The bank in January approved the funding of the project but has yet to release the money to construct the 960-kilometer undivided road.

The Mombasa-Nairobi-Addis Ababa Road Corridor Project is still under construction and is expected to be completed in 2017, five years after it was commissioned. The project involves the construction of a 320 km road. The Kenyan section is 122 km between Turbi and Moyale, the border town with Ethiopia, while the Hawassa-Ageremariam section in Ethiopia is 198 km. The existing road between Isiolo and Moyale is a gravel road constructed in 1974.

The modern, high-speed standard gauge railway line would start at Lamu Port and head to Isiolo in Central Kenya. At Isiolo, Kenya's most central town, the railway line would branch into two separate lines with one line heading to the Kenyan Ethiopia border and then to Addis Ababa.

The other line would head straight to Juba in South Sudan. The final phase would see the line extended from Isiolo to Nairobi, connecting it with the other standard gauge railway line project under construction between Mombasa and Nairobi. China Road and Bridge Co has been tasked with the responsibility of building the first phase from Mombasa to Nairobi. The project is expected to take 42 months to complete.

The Chinese firm is building the line from Mombasa to Nairobi before proceeding to Kampala in Uganda and finally ending in Kigali, Rwanda's capital. China Exim Bank is financing 90 percent of the project while the Kenyan government would provide the remainder. The project cost on the Kenyan side is $3.6 billion while the total cost of the entire project covering Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda is $8.6 billion. Uganda and Rwanda would meet the costs of building the railway on their sides following the signing of tripartite agreement between the three countries.

Other Kenyan towns to be covered in the LAPSSET project include Maralal and Lodwar.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in July signed a 42 billion Kenyan shilling ($464 million) deal with China Communication Construction Co to start the construction of the first three berths in Manda Bay at Lamu Port. The port would have a total of 32 berths once complete.

Another of Kenya's Vision 2030 projects, LAPSSET would open up a second transport corridor, which would strengthen Kenya's role as major transport hub in Africa's Great Lakes Region as well as in the continent.

The economic and transport project also would open up Juba, the capital of the continent's youngest landlocked nation, and facilitate the transportation of passengers and freight to and from the country.

A 3,250 km standard gauge railway line, a fiber optic cable, an oil pipeline and an elaborate road network are the main pieces of transportation infrastructure set to be built under the project, which would connect the three countries.

Other major infrastructure developments planned include the construction of resort cities complete with international airports at Lamu and Lokichoggio, and along the shores of Lake Turkana.

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, the late Ethiopian prime minister Menes Zenawi and retired president Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, together with former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga launched the project in 2012 in Lamu after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the three countries.

Last year, the Kenyan government set aside 3.7 billion Kenyan shillings in budget allocations for the project. The World Bank funded the feasibility study while the Development Bank of South Africa will finance it to the tune of 126 billion Kenyan shillings.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/12/2014 page22)