Ugandans have turned an old Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) social-media post into a running joke after the corporation said it was “cooking” nearly a year ago, with the Ministry of Works and Transport now joining the conversation.
URC posted on X on October 27, 2025: “Collegues, we are ‘cooking.’”
On Wednesday, September 16, 2026, the Ministry of Works and Transport revived the post by quoting it and asking:
“Colleagues, how far?”
The exchange quickly attracted responses from social-media users, with some joking about whether the food had been served, whether the beans were still cooking and whether the railway was waiting for firewood.
Journalist Erich Mboowa, quoting URC’s original post, asked: “How far are you with the cooking? Oba emmere yabakonako dda nemutatugamba.”
The online jokes come as URC continues to face delays in restoring parts of Uganda’s railway network and scrutiny over its financial and operational performance.
Railway rehabilitation still underway
One of the major projects under scrutiny is the 375-kilometre Tororo–Gulu metre-gauge railway line.
The line was initially expected to be completed in 2023, but the deadline has been repeatedly revised. In February 2026, URC confirmed that completion had been pushed to October because of funding constraints and damage caused by heavy rains and flooding.
The project is intended to restore rail connectivity between eastern Uganda and Gulu, where the railway links to the Gulu Logistics Hub, providing a potential cargo route towards South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
URC’s more recent updates indicate that work is progressing, with the corporation targeting handover of the Tororo–Gulu line in October 2026. Uganda Radio Network reported last month that works had reached Lira, with the project scheduled for handover in October.
The railway corporation is also pursuing other rehabilitation projects, including the Gulu–Pakwach line, modernisation of Port Bell and expansion of commuter rail services in the Greater Kampala area.
Financial losses and missing wagons
The social-media banter comes against a backdrop of serious financial and asset-management concerns at URC.
The Auditor General’s report for the year ended December 2025 showed that the corporation recorded a loss of Shs32.8 billion in the 2024/25 financial year.
The report cited weak revenue collection, idle assets, missing railway wagons, delayed rehabilitation projects and unresolved railway-land issues among the challenges facing the corporation.
Parliament has also been investigating the corporation’s assets and operations.
In July, Parliament said URC Managing Director Benon Kajuna recorded a statement with Parliament Police after failing to provide evidence concerning efforts to recover 394 railway wagons that went missing during the former Rift Valley Railways concession.
In September, Parliament adopted a report citing financial mismanagement, missing wagons, disputed procurement deals and the loss and encroachment of railway land.
The parliamentary scrutiny has also extended to the disposal of railway assets. In August, MPs questioned URC over the reported sale of 81 wagons as scrap for Shs3.7 billion.
Only part of the network is operational
The scale of the challenge is reflected in the amount of railway infrastructure currently in use.
A recent analysis based on URC’s turnaround plans reported that only 269 kilometres of Uganda’s 1,266-kilometre metre-gauge network were operational, representing about 21 per cent of the network.
The same report said freight volumes during the reporting period stood at 266,318 tonnes, compared with an estimated break-even level of about 540,000 tonnes annually.
URC is pursuing a broader turnaround programme intended to restore more railway infrastructure and increase freight capacity.
For now, however, the corporation’s October 2025 “cooking” post has acquired a life of its own online, with Ugandans using it to ask the same question posed by the Ministry of Works and Transport: how far has the cooking gone?
