Study Finds Trucking Preferred Over Kenya's Chinese-built Railway

 The Standard published on 7 April 2024 an article titled "Manufacturers Shun Railway over Cost, Flexibility Concerns" by Brian Ngugi.

A study by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers found that trucking is still the preferred way to move cargo following completion of the Chinese-built standard gauge railway (SGR) from the port of Mombasa to Naivasha.  Trucking is less costly, more flexible, and avoids other limitations of the SGR, which does not have last mile connectivity.  Nor has the railway project identified a source of funding to extend the SGR to the Ugandan border and eventually Kampala.   

South Sudan: A Third Alternative for Exporting Oil

Writing in Pambazuka News on 26 September 2013 in an article titled "South Sudan: A Third Alternative to the Oil Pipeline Proposal," Makol Bona Malwal makes the case for another way to export South Sudan's oil.  Most existing proposals focus on a pipeline (actually two pipelines because of different blends of oil) to the Kenyan coast.  A second proposal recommends building a rail line to the Kenyan coast.  Malwal urges a third alternative: the use of truck transport over a new paved road to the Kenyan coast.