Kenya plans to construct a new $300 million fuel pipeline from the port of Mombasa to the capital to replace an older one, and possibly extend it to Uganda.

Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) said on Wednesday it was inviting proposals for the design of the 450-km pipeline from east Africa's trade gateway to feed land-locked growing economies which rely on Kenya's Mombasa port for fuel imports.

"The new pipeline is designed to meet petroleum products demand for the eastern Africa region up to the year 2044," the company said in a statement.

KPC said the new pipeline would complement and eventually replace the existing pipeline linking Mombasa to Nairobi that has outlived its 30-year lifespan and is prone to ruptures.

Many of the products from Kenya's only refinery in Mombasa have to be trucked to countries in the region, which is slow and unreliable owing to breakdown of trucks and damaged roads. The new pipeline is expected to ease some of the burden.

KPC's existing pipeline runs From Mombasa to Nairobi, and onwards to the town of Nakuru in the west, and then forks to two other towns in the region Eldoret and Kisumu.

Kenya and Uganda also hope to revive plans to extend the pipeline past Eldoret to Uganda's capital Kampala, a distance of about 350 km, to give Uganda an option for accessing its fuel, much of which is transported by road. – Reuters