Kenya, Uganda begin talks on Eldoret-Kampala oil pipeline extension

By Moses Muli

Published: July 30,2024 11:00 AM

Kenya and Uganda have begun discussions on extending the petroleum products pipeline from Eldoret to Kampala, the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) announced on Tuesday.

Uganda’s Energy Minister Ruth Ssentamu last week met top officials in Kenya’s Energy Ministry, among them Principal Secretary Mohammed Liban. They later toured the KPC headquarters in Nairobi.

The pipeline extension will see Kenya construct a multi-product pipeline from Eldoret to the Kenya-Uganda border town of Malaba, which is about 127 kilometers from Eldoret.

Uganda will meanwhile put up a connecting line from Malaba to the capital Kampala, about 236 kilometres. Future expansion to the Rwandan capital Kigali has also been mooted.

“Extension of the pipeline to Uganda is a strategic move for Kenya as the country seeks to regain its competitive advantage in the petroleum export market, particularly in light of Uganda’s new importation strategy,” KPC Managing Director Joe Sang said.

Ssentamu said last week’s visit entailed planning and preparation for the kick-off of the project as well as understanding Kenya Pipeline’s operations, infrastructure and human capacity.

The project is poised to impact the region’s fuel import market and follows Uganda’s recent transition to independent fuel imports earlier this month, ending its previous dependence on Kenya for the supply of refined petroleum products.

Under a new agreement between the Uganda National Oil Corporation (UNOC) and Dutch energy multinational Vitol Bahrain, Kenya’s western neighbor aims to secure more competitive fuel prices.

Uganda will still rely on Kenya’s port of Mombasa and KPC’s infrastructure to transport oil products to the Eldoret and Kisumu depots.

Until earlier this year, Kenya and Uganda were at loggerheads after Nairobi denied its landlocked neighbour’s government-owned oil marketer a licence to operate locally and handle fuel imports to Kampala.

Kenya refused the use of KPC infrastructure to move refined petroleum products from Mombasa port to Uganda.

It resulted in Uganda suing Kenya at the East African Court of Justice in December last year, accusing Kenya of denying UNOC rights to operate as an oil marketing company in Kenya.

In February, President William Ruto met Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni over the matter, where he announced the row was being resolved.

Then in May, he hosted Museveni at State House, Nairobi, and thereafter announced that they had tasked their respective ministers to urgently mobilize resources for the project and report on progress by the end of 2024.