Museveni, Ruto to kick off construction of $8.5 billion SGR link.

Presidents Yoweri Museveni and William Ruto are scheduled to meet March 20 to officially kick off construction of an $8.5 billion Standard Gauge Railway extension, a joint venture designed to link the Port of Mombasa to the East African interior.The high-profile ceremony in Kisumu marks the start of a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project that will connect Kenya’s existing Nairobi-Naivasha SGR line to Malaba on the Ugandan border, eventually extending to Kampala.The project is expected to cost a combined $8.5 billion, with the Kenyan section estimated at $5.5 billion and the Ugandan side at $3 billion. Uganda has already secured initial funding and contracted Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi to begin geotechnical surveys and mapping on the 273-kilometer line from Malaba to the capital.