LAPSSET corridor: Lamu Port, South Sudan and Ethiopia

Legal basis and the authority

The LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority Order was published as Legal Notice 58 of 2013 under the State Corporations Act and commenced on 28 March 2013 ¹. It sets up the authority as a body corporate managed by a Board, with headquarters in Nairobi ¹.

The order gives the authority the task to plan, co-ordinate and sequence corridor projects with ministries and agencies. It oversees implementation, mobilises funds and promotes the corridor for moving goods and people ¹.

The authority lists its head office at Chester House, Koinange Street, Nairobi. It has regional offices in Lamu, Garissa, Isiolo and Turkana ⁴. Its home page lists a standard gauge railway and a crude oil pipeline as LAPSSET projects in the African Union PIDA Priority Action Plan 2 for 2021 to 2030 ⁴.

Planned components

The order defines the corridor as the land covered by the highways to South Sudan and Ethiopia, with the pipelines and railways linking Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Lamu Port ¹. It lists these components ¹.

• Lamu Port at Manda Bay ¹
• Standard gauge railway from Lamu to Isiolo, Isiolo to South Sudan, Isiolo to Ethiopia and Nairobi to Isiolo ¹
• Highways to Nadapal and Nakodok on the South Sudan border and to Moyale and Addis Ababa ¹
• Crude and product oil pipelines from Lamu toward South Sudan and Ethiopia ¹
• Airports at Isiolo, Lamu and Lake Turkana, and resort cities at the same three places ¹
• Refineries and the High Grand Falls multipurpose project ¹

Lamu Port

The authority Lamu Port page plans 32 deep sea berths. The first three were contracted to a Chinese engineering, procurement and construction contractor on 1 August 2014 ². The Government of Kenya funds the first three berths. The page expects private investors to fund the other 29 ².

The page says Berth 1 is complete. It says Berths 2 and 3 were 70% complete, with completion expected by the end of 2020 ². It gives a maximum depth of 17.5 metres ². It puts the short-term plan for the first three berths at US$689 million and the 32-berth project at US$5 billion ².

The page says feasibility studies were done in 2011, the environmental assessment was approved by NEMA in 2014 and dredging began in October 2016 ². The page carries no date and names no port operator ².

Highways

The authority highway page reports these sections ³.

Status and dates

The road page says travel time between Moyale and Nairobi fell from about 3 days to 10 hours. It says the Moyale One Stop Border Post was expected to be commissioned in the 2016/17 financial year ³. Both project pages are undated and refer to targets in 2016/17 and 2020, so their status lines may be out of date ^2,3. No dated official status for the railway or the pipeline was found on the authority pages that could be opened ⁴.