Uganda’s army commander, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni, said unexpectedly that the country had canceled a $3.2 billion contract with the Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi, according to Maariv. In a post on X, he wrote, “We canceled the contract with the Turkish company for building the railway. We will get another company, more worthy of our country.”
Kainerugaba later said that from now on, all road-construction contracts in the capital, Kampala, would be carried out by the Ugandan army’s engineering division. The rail project is one of the most important infrastructure schemes in Uganda’s history, a 272-kilometer electrified line meant to connect Kampala with the border town of Malaba in Kenya and give Uganda better access to the port of Mombasa.
Yapi Merkezi won the contract in 2024 after Uganda canceled an earlier deal with a Chinese company because of long delays. Citibank was only recently appointed to lead the project’s international financing effort.
Foreign reports said the announcement came against the backdrop of a bitter political dispute between Kainerugaba and Turkey over his demand that Uganda be handed dissident Fred Lumbuye, who is in Turkey. In recent months, the general has escalated his rhetoric toward Ankara, threatening to boycott Turkish Airlines, demand $1 billion in compensation from Turkey, and stage a protest outside the Turkish embassy in Kampala. Ugandan officials and Yapi Merkezi have not yet issued a formal statement confirming a legal cancellation, so it remains unclear whether the deal has been voided officially or whether Kainerugaba was making a political declaration.
