Charles Mbire, a leading Ugandan businessman, has won a hotly contested battle to buy 15 per cent of Rift Valley Railways.

This battle pitted two of Uganda’s rising young stars against East Africa’s emerging business and political power brokers.

The sale of the shares closes a long running saga that has shaken the establishment in the region in a very public corporate battle to control a multimillion dollar railway concession.

The battle involves a colourful cast of inept public officials and World Bank advisors, scheming businessmen and profiteers, political sharks, an ambitious and untouchable Kenyan investment house and a brash private equity operator from Egypt with lots of cash.

Sources close to the deal confirmed to The EastAfrican that Mr Mbire has already paid an undisclosed sum for his stake to complete the deal ready for the signing of the amended shareholder agreement on Monday.

This will pave the way for RVR to lock in loans that are required urgently needed to rehabilitate railway tracks and buy trains.

Already, four new lenders have made commitments.

Equity Bank is said to have signed a $20 million deal.

African Development Bank has committed $30 million.

The emerging Market Fund for Africa has committed $20 million.

This brings committed loans up to $120 million.

Mr Mbire, who also sits on the board of RVR, was competing against a bid put in by Ugandan businessman Patrick Bitature.

However, Mr Mbire emerged as winner after the IFC, the World Bank’s private sector lending arm and KfW, the German-backed development lender, endorsed his bid.

Sources revealed that these institutions backed Mr Mbire’s bid over Mr Bitature’s because of the latter’s connection to the ruling political elite in Uganda.

Our sources say it has something to do with suspicions that he has links with shadowy segments of the political elite.

The financiers feared that his involvement in RVR would expose the company to more political risks.

Mr Mbire, who was recently appointed as one of IMF’s regional advisors, easily passed the extensive due diligence that IFC is obligated to carry on its potential business partners.

Mr Mbire’s rising profile as an advisor to the International Monetary Fund’s regional office seems to have worked in his favour.

Then there is the fact that he knows RVR intimately, having been a director of the company long before the Egyptians came into the picture.

Earlier in the week, it appeared like RVR’s never-ending shareholder saga was headed for more weeks of drama with news that Uganda wanted to exclude key branch extensions to the Uganda railways line that goes to the Pakwatch and Kasese.

This is the region that is targeted for economic development to open up copper mines and oil exploration in Uganda.

This could have presented a fresh hurdle days before the signing of the amended shareholders agreement between Kenya and Uganda government and private equity firms Citadel and Transcentury slated for Monday.

It is now emerging that the threat to exclude the branch lines to Kasese and Pakwatch was just a red herring thrown in by officials in the Ugandan government in a bid to sway the award of the shares.

This led to a conflict with Citadel, which led to the intervention of President Yoweri Museveni.

The Egyptians have lobbied President Museveni himself and have apparently been given an assurance that they would be given these two lines.

Chances are that Uganda will sign the new concession agreement early next week.

The Pakwach branch line is critical because of political undercurrents.

It is the link to the region that opposes Museveni most stridently.

Citadel has promised Museveni that it can get trains running on the northern line in 24 months.

Museveni is reportedly encouraged by this prospect. He needs to demonstrate to the people of the north that he cares for their welfare.

Suspicions are rife in Uganda that well-connected individuals are angling to hive off the Kasese and Pakwatch segment of the concession.

It is unlikely that any investor will want to own a branch line whose economic viability will ultimately depend on an RVR-controlled main line.

The motive for Uganda’s insistence on taking these two branch lines back is crony capitalism — apparently, somebody wanted the Egyptians to pay.

In a sense, the Egyptians are in a tight corner because of their own folly.

The viciousness with which they bought out the shareholders of RVR is what fed into the perception that they would pay any price to get the concession under their control.

Unfortunately, Uganda is the only stakeholder in the concession that has not benefited from the largesse of the Egyptians.

Powerful players have calculated that there will be money to be made from holding on to the lines by selling them later to the Egyptians at a premium.