Uganda has approved Turkish construction firm Yapi Merkezi to build the Malaba-Kampala standard-gauge railway, the country's military chief has announced, reversing a decision to cancel the project earlier this year.

General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the chief of defence forces, announced the approval on Friday 6 November, saying the decision had been taken under the direction of President Yoweri Museveni.

The 272-kilometre line is the first phase of Uganda's standard-gauge railway, running from the Kenyan border at Malaba to the capital, Kampala.

A reversal of June's cancellation

The announcement reverses a statement by Gen Muhoozi himself on 16 June 2026, in which he said the contract with Yapi Merkezi had been cancelled. No revised contract, financing or timetable details have been published alongside the new approval.

The original contract was awarded in October 2024 at a value of 2.7 billion euros, about $3 billion. President Museveni formally launched the project at Tororo on 21 November 2024, with construction expected to take 48 months once main works begin.

Yapi Merkezi is one of Turkey's largest construction firms and has built railways in Turkey and abroad, including high-speed and metro lines.

Financing and land

Financing for the line is still being assembled. The Islamic Development Bank approved 650.75 million euros for the project in June 2026, and the African Development Bank is considering about $650 million in support.

Land acquisition for the route is about 70 per cent complete, according to earlier official statements, and the railway will replace the ageing metre-gauge line that has served Uganda since the colonial era.

Why the line matters

The railway will connect with Kenya's standard-gauge line at Malaba, giving landlocked Uganda a direct rail link to the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast.

The line is part of the Northern Corridor, the trade route that carries most of Uganda's imports and exports, and the government has presented it as a way to cut the cost of moving freight, which currently travels mainly by road.

On the Kenyan side, the standard-gauge line runs from Mombasa to Naivasha, with a planned extension to the border at Malaba that has yet to be built. Until both sides are complete, freight will continue to move between the two different gauges at the border.

Uganda first agreed the standard-gauge project with Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan more than a decade ago, but construction on the Ugandan side has yet to begin, and the scheme has been delayed repeatedly since it was first announced.

Neither the government nor Yapi Merkezi has said when construction will start following the new approval.

Sources: People Daily Digital; Metro News Kenya.