The East African Community (EAC), together with Kenya and Uganda and the African Development Bank (AfDB), will hold a Market Sounding Conference in Kampala on October 20–21, 2025, to court private investors for a 193-kilometre multinational expressway linking Kisumu–Busia in Kenya with Kakira–Malaba in Uganda.
- •The project is part of the Northern Corridor, the region’s main trade artery from Mombasa Port to landlocked markets in Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and the DRC.
- •It is intended to cut travel times, lower freight costs, and modernise key border crossings at Busia, Malaba, and Lwakhakha into One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs).
- •The Kampala meeting will review feasibility and bankability studies, including proposals for public-private partnership (PPP) models backed by AfDB.
Officials hope to gauge investor appetite and shape a financing structure that can attract long-term capital to East Africa’s infrastructure push.
The expressway’s groundwork has begun with the handover of a US$1.5m feasibility study to GOPA Infra GmbH of Germany and ITEC Limited of Kenya. Funded by AfDB, the 18-month study covers a 256-kilometre section from Kisumu to Kakira, involving rehabilitation of existing single-carriageway stretches and upgrading 104 kilometres to a dual carriageway.
The project fits into the EAC’s plan to improve its 10 cross-border road corridors, a 15,000-kilometre network designed to accelerate integration and boost regional trade competitiveness. If successful, the Kenya–Uganda expressway could become a template for privately financed transport infrastructure across the bloc.
