By Marline Atieno
The Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Kipchumba Murkomen, has arrived in Lamu to conduct an on-site assessment of the LAPPSET corridor road and other infrastructure projects in the region.
This is in readiness for the shipment of the 60, 000 tonne fertiliser cargo bound for Ethiopia.
CS Murkomen has initiated a thorough inspection of key sites along the LAPPSET corridor, including road construction sites, bridges and other infrastructure projects.
The LAPPSET corridor, which spans from Lamu to South Sudan and Ethiopia, is a flagship infrastructure project aimed at enhancing regional connectivity and promoting economic development.
The corridor encompasses road networks, ports, railway lines and other key infrastructure components designed to facilitate trade and investment across East Africa.
The CS and his Ethiopian counterpart, Alemu Sime, inked a bilateral pact for the establishment of a standard gauge railway network.
This network is mainly aimed to connect Lamu Port, Moyale and Addis Ababa.
In January 2020, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan entered into a memorandum of understanding for development and financing.
They convened with potential financiers, such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
At that point, the project was endorsed as an initiative of the African Union.
It was reconfigured to connect the Lamu port on the eastern coast of the Indian Ocean to the Douala port on the western coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
This established the project as a key component in achieving the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
As CS Murkomen concludes his assessment tour in Lamu, stakeholders eagerly await the outcomes and recommendations that will emerge from his visit.