For decades, the development narrative of landlocked countries has been trapped in a single complaint: we are geographically unfavoured.
This refrain has become a convenient excuse, masking a deeper problem. Uganda is not suffering from geography; it is trapped in infrastructure purgatory, suspended between potential and progress. Uganda is surrounded by five countries Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a combined population of nearly 250 million people. That is not isolation; it is strategic centrality. Yet economically, Uganda behaves like a country cut off from opportunity, lost and wandering in the Upside Down of Stranger Things, where the path forward exists but remains unseen and distorted.
Uganda’s position is strikingly similar to Austria, a landlocked country at the heart of Europe. Austria does not lament the absence of a coastline. Instead, it thrives on efficient railways, seamless cross-border connectivity, and logistics systems that turn landlockedness into leverage. What enables this is not proximity to ports alone, but robust rail networks that move minerals, agricultural output, and industrial goods efficiently over vast distances. In 2023, ÖBB (Österreichische Bundesbahnen), Austria’s national railway group, reported total group revenue of approximately pound 5.02 billion from passenger and freight services, a clear example of how a landlocked country can generate substantial economic value through strong railway systems.
In the Ugandan context, the myth that access to the sea determines prosperity refuses to die. Uganda’s railway story began during the colonial era as part of the Uganda Railway project initiated by the British in the late 19th century. The railway was built primarily to access resources, consolidate control over the region, facilitate trade, and move troops efficiently. After the break-up of the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation in 1977, Uganda inherited its national system under the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC). Years of underinvestment and conflict, however, left much of the network in disuse. Despite inheriting a broken railway system, Uganda can still transform it into a wealth-generating treadmill, one that compounds economic growth over time.
A modern, interoperable railway linking Kampala to Gulu, Mbale, Mbarara, and Kasese, and onward to Kigali, Juba, and eastern Congo, would pull Uganda out of economic purgatory and turn it into a regional transportation powerhouse. It would unlock agro-processing, manufacturing, mining, and regional distribution at scale. Railways do not merely transport goods; they transform economies as a regional bloc. If there is any doubt, ask China. As the President speaks of collective socio-economic transformation among East African countries, it is time to walk the talk. Roads alone cannot industrialise a region of this scale. They are costly to maintain, inefficient for heavy cargo, and unsuitable for long-term regional trade integration.
Without affordable and efficient transport systems, Uganda’s economy remains trapped in the upside down of exporting raw materials expensively, importing finished goods inefficiently, facing delivery delays, enduring traffic jams caused by slow-moving heavy trucks, and watching value leak away at every border. The way out is clear: steel tracks, logistics hubs, and the political courage to build for the next 50 years not the next election cycle. Forget access to the sea: Make railways great again.