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Kenya to buy land for Rift Valley Mombasa-Nairobi-Kampala railway

KENYA said it will spend US$45 million to acquire land to build a standard wide gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi and then on to Kampala, part of a deal with China to boost trade in east Africa.

The $13.8 billion rail project, which began last December, will eventually link Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi, then on to Uganda.

Muhammad Swazuri, who heads Kenya's National Land Commission the payout to 1,500 land owners in path of the $13.8 billion rail project.

"We are keen to ensure that what is offered as compensation is just and fair, so that this project can go on uninterrupted," Mr Swazuri told Reuters.

But not everyone is satisfied. On Tuesday, some land owners held protests to say they were being offered too little, a move that might frustrate the already ongoing project.

"They are offering me only KES28,000 shillings (US$288.51) for my two-room house, which they will demolish. But how do I build another one with that little cash?" protester Peter Ashimosi told Reuters.

The existing narrow gauge Uganda Railway, later called the Rift Valley Railway was built by the British in 1896, running 560 miles from Mombasa, through Nairobi, and up the Rift Valley to Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Another leg of the same railway system traversed the Great Rift Valley, through the town of Eldoret in Kenya, enters Uganda at Malaba and passes through Tororo and Jinja to enter Kampala, Uganda's capital.

Years of mismanagement in Kenya and Uganda have meant their governments neglected proper maintenance of tracks and trains on the existing line. As a result, much of the freight destined for Kenya's interior and landlocked neighbours is moved by road.

Officials say the new line will ferry heavier and bigger containers more quickly and will relieve pressure on the region's roads, which have been damaged by the amount of traffic.