A toxic convergence of national, corporate and personal interest on two competing oil pipeline routes is threatening regional integration in a dramatic saga involving Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya and Uganda had initially agreed on the Hoima-Lokichar-Lamu oil pipeline, but Tanzania later announced it had reached a separate deal for a route from the oilfields of north-western Uganda to the port of Tanga. On Monday, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni was in Kenya for fresh talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta but no deal was reached. The clash of interests over the route to be used to transport Uganda’s crude oil to the market has not only left Kenya in a tricky situation over the realisation of the ambitious Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) infrastructure project but also split the two countries that were leading the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” in the East African Community that has been working […]