Ugandan MPs have raised fears of possible diplomatic consequences after authorities failed to account for 281 railway wagons belonging to neighbouring Kenya.
The Kenyan wagons form part of 394 pieces of rolling stock valued at more than Shs220.8bn whose whereabouts Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) has been asked to explain.
Parliament’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure on 23 July 2026 directed URC managing director Benon Kajuna to record a statement with the Criminal Investigations Directorate as questions mounted over the missing assets.
Budiope County MP Ssebbugga Kimeze said Uganda could face difficulties with Kenya if assets belonging to its railway corporation disappeared while under Ugandan custody.
“As if that is not enough, we actually lost 281 wagons for the Kenyan railways. Property belonging to a neighbouring country goes missing here. In fact, it is stolen by our own thieves here. This is going to cause us a diplomatic problem one of these days,” Kimeze said.
Committee chairperson Mwine Mpaka had earlier demanded that URC provide documentary evidence of its joint efforts with Kenya Railways Corporation to trace the wagons.
MPs gave the corporation an hour to produce the documents but said the information submitted did not include adequate confirmation from the Kenyan side showing where the wagons were located.
“The assumption is they are in Kenya, but there is also an assumption that some are sold in Uganda,” Mpaka said.
He said Kajuna would be required to explain the matter to investigators and gave the corporation another week to produce supporting evidence.
“The managing director is going to go and record a statement at police, and if he does not provide evidence within a week, the next time he reports, then we shall officially open the fire regarding the disappearance of the wagons,” Mpaka said.
The questions originate from findings in the Auditor General’s December 2025 report on URC’s management of railway assets.
Auditors established that URC could not physically account for 131 of its own wagons by November 2024. Eighteen were subsequently traced, meaning 113 remained unaccounted for.
When the 281 Kenyan-owned wagons are included, the total rises to 394.
The financial implications have also attracted MPs’ attention.
Batoro County MP Emmanuel Ilukol put the estimated value of an individual wagon at about $150,000 and called for the State House Anti-Corruption Unit to investigate.
“It seems we are taking it lightly. Up to when must we burden the taxpayer for acts of people that are not accountable for their jobs?” Ilukol said.
Kajuna told the committee that URC was continuing efforts to reconcile railway assets with Kenya Railways.
According to him, tracing wagons involves repeated verification because rolling stock moves across railway networks. He said officials from the Ugandan and Kenyan corporations had established joint committees and conducted meetings aimed at resolving discrepancies.
That explanation failed to satisfy some committee members.
Kole North MP Samuel Opio questioned why URC could not use wagon identification numbers and other records to determine where the rolling stock had gone.
“We don’t know whether they were stolen, we don’t know whether they have been sold, we don’t know whether they are in Kenya. Wagons cannot just be stated to have disappeared. They are supposed to have wagon numbers, identification numbers, traceability of their locations,” Opio said.
The controversy has put URC’s asset-management procedures under increased scrutiny, particularly its record-keeping, security at railway facilities and arrangements for tracking rolling stock exchanged with Kenya.
Uganda’s metre-gauge railway forms part of the Northern Corridor transport system, connecting the landlocked country to Kenya and the Port of Mombasa, a major gateway for Ugandan imports and exports.
