By Reuben Olita

Rail transport to Uganda and other countries in the Great Lakes region is expected to resume today as engineers of Rift Valley Railways (RVR) have started repairing the railway track in Nairobi.

The track was uprooted two weeks ago by rioting youth in Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slums in protest of what they called Uganda’s continued occupation of Migingo Island in Lake Victoria.

“Rift Valley Railways has embarked on emergency repair works for the destroyed rail track section within Nairobi’s Kibera slums this morning,” said Judy Achar, the company’s public relations officer, in a statement yesterday.

“With this latest disruption, RVR has suffered losses running into millions as freight destined for Uganda remained held up in Nairobi.”

The repairs had stalled for over 10 days after youth blocked the RVR engineers from working.

A tour of Kibera slums by Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday cooled the tempers as he pleaded with the residents to maintain peace as the government sought a solution to the Migingo row.

Odinga, had a difficult time convincing the protesters, who accused the government of laxity in dealing with the border dispute.

“Let us give them two months instead of uprooting the railway which will not bring back Migingo,” Odinga said. He announced that he would meet President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala over the issue. However, the crowd objected to his visit, saying they should meet in Nairobi.

The actions by the youth had paralysed rail operations between Kenya and Uganda with over 180 train wagons from the Port of Mombasa grounded in Nairobi.