NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 21 – ODM Party Leader Oburu Oginga on Saturday appealed to Uganda President Yoweri Museveni to support the shared management of Lake Victoria as a common user facility, saying joint oversight could enhance security and promote peaceful coexistence for communities along the lake’s borders.
Speaking in Kisumu during the launch of the Kisumu–Malaba section of Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), Oginga said that cooperative management of Lake Victoria would foster peace and collaboration among communities living across the Kenya–Uganda border.
“Your Excellency President Museveni, I appeal to you, please make this lake of ours, Lake Victoria, a common user facility so that you can manage the security of the lake jointly with us,” Oginga said.
“We don’t want harassment from our side and from your side.”
Oginga highlighted the historical and ethnic ties shared by border communities, arguing that cooperation was essential to maintain peace and support livelihoods around the lake.
“These countries of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania were supposed to be one country. It is just because of colonial divisions that they became separate,” he said, citing ethnic communities such as the Samia and Teso, who live on both sides of the border.
The remarks came during a ceremony in which President William Ruto and Museveni launched the Kisumu–Malaba SGR, a cross-border project aimed at strengthening trade and transport links between Kenya and Uganda.
The leaders presided over the groundbreaking and symbolically tightened a railway bolt to mark the start of construction on the new rail corridor connecting western Kenya to Uganda and the wider East African region.
Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir said the railway will include multiple passenger and freight stations to improve logistics and mobility along the western corridor.
“We will have a passenger terminus in Kisumu and intermediate stations in Narok, Mulot, Bomet, Sotik, Sondu, and Ahero,” Chirchir said.
“On the Kisumu–Malaba section, the passenger terminus will be in Malaba, with intermediate stations in Yala and Mumias.”
The Naivasha–Kisumu main line will extend about 264 km, with an additional 8.69-km spur linking the railway to a proposed new Kisumu port.
The Kisumu–Malaba segment will stretch a further 107 km, forming part of a continuous rail corridor from the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the Uganda border.
Oginga praised the SGR project, emphasizing that infrastructure is critical for connecting East African countries and unlocking regional development.
“Without proper infrastructure, it is impossible to connect our countries,” he said.
Tensions around Lake Victoria have periodically flared, particularly over fishing grounds such as Migingo Island, a tiny but economically important outpost disputed by Kenya and Uganda.
In December 2025, President Ruto pledged to resolve the Migingo dispute diplomatically while protecting Kenyan fishermen and maintaining cooperative ties with Kampala.
Kenya and Uganda have recently deepened bilateral ties, signing agreements covering fisheries, tourism, agriculture, transport, and investment, and negotiating frameworks for cross-border resource sharing on Lake Victoria.
