Kagame’s Railways to Dar Es Salaam and Mombasa and His US$2 Billion Airport: A Tale of Failure

Since 1994, Rwanda’s dictator, General Paul Kagame, pledged grandiose projects to transform the nation from poverty to prosperity. His most ambitious undertaking was to construct railways connecting Rwanda to the East African Seaboard, with the objective of reducing transportation costs and time for imports and exports. This fantasy never materializes. In contrast, Kagame is currently constructing a new US$2 billion airport situated outside Kigali, to which he recently allocated US$591 million from the 2025/2026 budget. Me thinks the ironman will not witness the completion of the airport.

Rwanda’s $2B Kigali airport project follows the collapse of Kagame’s $1.2B railway plan.

Rwandan ironman Kagame, upon assuming power in Rwanda, claimed that he recognized the economic and logistical challenges posed by the country’s landlocked status as a priority. He identified the need to establish a railway line to connect Rwanda to the seaports of neighbouring Tanzania and Kenya, significantly reducing the time and costs of transporting goods.

For instance, the cost of transporting a 40-foot container by road from Dar Es Salaam to Kigali is US$4,000, representing a one-week journey. Road transportation of imports and exports incurs over 40% in costs due to various factors, including legal and illegal tariff barriers. These barriers, coupled with numerous weighbridges and chaotic border crossings, compound the challenges of road transportation.

At the heart of Kagame’s Vision 2020, launched in 2000, was the modernization of infrastructure and regional integration to foster greater prosperity. During the presidency of Benjamin Mkapa (1995–2005), Kagame initiated discussions on revolutionizing transportation by establishing a rail connection between Rwanda and Tanzania.

Kagame continued to engage in discussions with the subsequent president of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, who served from 2005 to 2015. On January 26, 2008, Kagame declared that an American company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway, was prepared to construct a rail link connecting Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, to Tanzania’s rail network in Isaka, Tanzania. By 2013, when the railway was anticipated to be operational, Kagame vowed to “hit” Kikwete after the latter suggested that the Rwandan strongman engage in negotiations with his numerous political adversaries.

When the Kigali-Dar Es Salaam railway fell apart in 2013, Kagame joined Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta into the “coalition of the willing.” Together they would build a railway from Kigali, through Kampala, and Nairobi to Mombasa at a cost of US$13 billion. The ambitious infrastructure would be completed by March 2018.

Kenya’s component was partially completed in June 2017, when the US$3.2 billion rail line from Mombasa reached Nairobi. Nothing was ever heard of from Kagame and his railway — via Kenya/Uganda. He dropped out of the coalition of the willing and went back to Tanzania.

Kagame revived the Tanzania option with a third Tanzanian president — John Magufuli, in office from 2015 until his sudden death in 2021. We were now told that the two gentlemen were to build electric trains. The groundbreaking of the railway that would link the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam and Kigali was scheduled for October 2018. Under the proposed electric locomotive, passenger trains would travel at a speed of 160km/hr while cargo trains would move at a speed of 120km/hr. The Standard Gauge Railway from the port of Dar es Salaam to Kigali was expected to cost Rwanda and Tanzania close to US$2.5 billion. Tanzania would foot $1.3 billion with Rwanda expected to spend $1.2 billion.

Kagame forgot the railway. As of 2025, his priority is building a US$2 billion new International airport for his capital city of Kigali. Kagame has declared that Qatar will fund and operate the airport as well as the national airline, Rwandair. Don't bet on it.