Three East African leaders decided to build a new pipeline from South Sudan and Uganda to the Kenyan Port of Lamu and extend the old Mombasa duct from Eldoret to Rwanda.
Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Paul Kagame of Rwanda held a one-day meeting in Entebbe, Uganda, on Tuesday.
The three presidents said in a statement that it was agreed that “the pipeline that currently exists and brings products from Mombasa to Eldoret should be extended to Kampala and Rwanda.”
“Another pipeline will be constructed and will be for evacuation of crude oil when it starts flowing and this again will be done between Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya, ending up at the port of Lamu”, the statement added.
The three presidents also agreed to build a standard size railway line from Mombasa, Kenya, through Uganda to Rwanda to lower costs with goods transportation.
They also explored ideas about the construction of an oil refinery in Uganda.
Presidents Museveni, Kenyatta and Kagame also decided to meet every two months to monitor the execution of their decisions that included issuing East African Community or EAC e-identity cards for the citizens of the five countries and single tourist visas for the area.
The absence of Burundi and Tanzania, the other two members of the EAC, at the Entebbe meeting was not explained.
President Salva Kiir Mayardit was another noted absence since the mini-summit also decided on South Sudan’s new oil pipeline to Lamu.