Financing for infrastructure projects will be high on the agenda at the EAC Heads of State Summit in Nairobi this week, during which Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta is scheduled to hand over the chair to Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete.

The presidents of the five member states are expected to adopt alternative means to raise $100 million for the Central (Tanzania and Burundi) and Northern (Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda) Corridors.

They are also set to endorse the integration of the two parallel projects into one Community initiative, giving the strongest indication of their desire to bridge the rift that was threatening to break up the regional bloc.

“The Northern Corridor infrastructure projects will run as they are but under the larger EAC infrastructure programme. The same will apply to the Central Corridor projects,” said Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed in a statement.

“The ultimate objective of both projects is minimising delays in the movement of goods and people across the region, which is the main agenda for the EAC integration,” she added.

The responsibility of steering the EAC through this phase rests on President Kikwete, who is serving the last few months as head of state as Tanzania prepares to hold its General Election in October. 

President Kenyatta held the chairmanship for slightly longer than the stipulated one year, after the Summit was postponed at the eleventh hour in November when President Kikwete was taken ill.

READ: EAC Secretariat to decide on next Summit

However, the EAC leaders, through the third EAC Infrastructure Summit in Nairobi, which was attended by their representatives, directed their finance ministers to find ways of mobilising funding for the infrastructure projects, and then submit their proposal for adoption.

The focus of the projects is construction of roads, railways, an oil pipeline, harmonisation of axle load controls and service automation at border points.

READ: Infrastructure projects form bulk of investments by regional govts

Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan are firming up their plans for the construction of both crude oil and petroleum products pipelines. The first will link the oil production zones of Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya to the Lamu port; the second pipeline will transport refined petroleum products from Mombasa to Uganda and Rwanda, easing reliance on petroleum tankers.

Construction of the standard gauge railway planned to run from Mombasa to Kigali, with a spur to South Sudan, has begun.

Tanzania and Burundi have a bilateral arrangement to construct a 200-kilometre standard gauge railway between Uvinza in Tanzania and Musongati in Burundi, estimated to cost $550 million.

READ: Tanzania, Burundi plan standard gauge railway project

During the Summit, the Heads of State are expected to approve the specific projects that the $1.2 billion fund given by the World Bank to the Community will support.

The World Bank gave the funds to help countries prepare for the investments and policies needed for the region’s extractive boom, invest in regional intermodal transport infrastructure, including reviving inland waterways on Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, along with associated roads and rail links, and to support the implementation of the Common Market Protocol, especially to help to remove barriers to agriculture, trade and selected services.

Although the EAC political federation will not be on the main agenda of the Summit as had been planned in November, the leaders will assess a draft of the roadmap now under discussion by experts. The draft will later be taken to the Council of Ministers, and presented to the heads of state for approval.

The federation was dropped from the main agenda after Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania sought more time to consult on the scope and timelines for the union scheduled to be in place in a decade.

READ: States fail to adopt EAC federation plan

President Kenyatta told The EastAfrican that member states are committed to evolving into one federation, and that the timelines are not too ambitious and would be met as scheduled.

“We have done great things together before. In the past few years, the idea and practice of full integration have gathered momentum. We shall not pass up the opportunity. More fundamentally, in a world where distance is shrinking, where markets are larger, and where people are far more mobile, it makes good sense to unite into one,” said President Kenyatta.