[Paul Kagame (left) with Uhuru Kenyatta. He has entered into an agreement on SGR instead of Kenya as earlier projected. Photo/Nation]
Kenya's continued dominance as gate-route to East African economy suffered a major blow on Monday following President Paul Kagame's decision to prefer Tanzania as sea route to her imports and exports.
President Uhuru Kenyatta's ambitious SGR project will after all serve internally with Uganda also contemplating a deal with Dar es salaam.
"We have directed ministers of foreign affairs from the two countries to meet next week and discuss financial model," said President John Magufuli after meeting his Rwandese counterpart Paula Kagame.
He added: "We want construction to start immediately because feasibility studies have been done."
The 400 kilometer modern SGR will connect border town of Isaka to Kigali since construction of Tanzania SGR is already underway.
Before launching the ambitious project, Uhuru insisted that the SGR would connect Mombasa and Kigali, a move that has since been overtaken by events.
In the recent past, most East African countries have abandoned traditional port of Mombasa for Dar-es-salaam, a move that has put Tanzania at loggerheads with Nairobi.
Kagame said when he toured Tanzania: "We did assessment and found it economically affordable to use Tanzania as gate-route to our country."