Uganda’s freight and logistics industry started with the building of the Uganda Railway. At the time, the major purpose of the railway was to transport copper at Kilembe mines. Coming all the way from Mombasa, the railway made things possible, especially for those along the railway line.

The first railway into Uganda was extended in the mid- 1920s from Nakuru to Soroti through Tororo in 1929, before coming down to Jinja through Namasagali. The railway finally reached Kampala in 1931, before being extended to Kasese in western Uganda, where it reached in 1956 and the northern line reaching Pakwach en route to Arua in 1964.

No borders
In the 1960s, the three East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania decided to form the East African Community (EAC). The EAC was more of a country with no borders between the three countries.

“There was one airline under the name East African Airlines, all the ports belonged to the community under the East African railways and harbours and most importantly, there was one currency, the East African shilling. One would move from one country to another without any identification. Passenger trains would travel all the way from Kasese to Mombasa without any hindrance,” Charles Kareeba, the chairperson of Uganda Shippers Council, says.

In 1977, however, the EAC collapsed, and this led to a change in many things. The three partner states, including Zambia, had bought ships under the East African National Shipping Line. “With our own ships, we carried our own imports and exports, and we competed favourably with other super ferries.

But all these collapsed with the community,” Kareeba explains. With the breakup of the community, the East African Railways and Harbour Authority was no more and it gave birth to the Uganda Railways Corporation in 1977.