A mega project rises in East Africa, Ibadan, Anambra, Pretoria
A distinctive, glass-paneled multi-storey building with tall stone arches stands out in the bushes of Magogoni in Kenya’s historic coastal town of Lamu. It is the headquarters of a $25 billion infrastructure project—the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor—which will link Kenya with Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan. The far-reaching project involves a railway, a highway, a crude oil pipeline and a fibre-optic cable connecting the four countries. The project will also include several airports, resort cities, an oil refinery, a 32-berth port in Lamu and other supporting infrastructure mini projects. Once completed, the LAPSSET railway will connect to West Africa’s Douala–Lagos–Cotonou–Abidjan Corridor, running through Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire respectively. Experts view the LAPSSET project as a major contribution to the African Union’s regional integration vision of a peaceful, prosperous and fully