Farmers of peas, particularly those growing sugar snaps and mange tout varieties, now have a reason to smile, thanks to the lifting of the five-year ban by European Union (EU). According to Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) managing director Esther Kimani, EU’s commission saw the determination farmers had in adhering to their standards and decided to lower the checking levels to five per cent. “Farmers were able to learn fast and adhered to the requirements, a thing that forced the EU to drop its checking level of percentage from 10 to five per cent,” she says. MRL REQUIREMENT Following this amendment, Kenya’s produce will now be checked at the five per cent level. In 2013, farmers of peas were not adhering to the EU market requirements by exceeding Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) on produce which was detected on entry to the EU markets. "This forced EU to slap a ban on the two crops because of the failure by exporters to conform to the 10 per cent MRLs requirement," Ms Kimani, told the Nation. RIGHT CHEMICALS She however noted that the county produce are still checked but randomly adding that farmers particularly small holder will not incur extra costs on their produce because of extended checks at the EU points of entry. Ms Kimani says Horticulture Competent Authority, a committee chaired by Kephis and coordinated by the ministry of Agriculture managed to bring down the level of MRLs as well as sensitise farmers on importance of using the right chemicals...

Kenya is expected to sign a Sh380 billion contract for the second phase of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in September. Speaking in Mombasa, Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said the deal will be inked during this year’s Forum on China-Africa Corporation (FOCAC) that will be held from September 1-5 in China. “We shall be travelling to China on the first week of September for the FOCAC summit and we shall sign the Sh380 billion contract for the second phase of the SGR from Naivasha to Kisumu,” Mr Macharia said. SH800 BILLION However, the CS did not name the financier of the second phase, only saying the project is a great opportunity for investors to build industries and houses along the corridor, beginning from Mombasa to Kisumu. Speaking during the Architectural Association of Kenya annual convention at Pride Inn Hotel, the CS said the signing of the deal will put the cost of the complete project at Sh800 billion “The Mombasa-Nairobi phase cost Sh327 billion, the extension to Naivasha cost Sh150 billion and the final phase will cost Sh380 billion,” Mr Macharia said. According to the government's plan, phase 2B of the project will start at the planned Naivasha Industrial Park where Phase 2A ends. INLAND PORT It will pass through Narok, Bomet, Kericho counties and terminate in Kisumu where the government will put up a modern inland port. The railway line will have 25 stations — a county station in Kisumu, six intermediate stations and 18 crossing...

Arusha. The East African Business Council (EABC) is seeking the support of regional legislators to expeditiously tackle business challenges within the bloc. “The private sector has continued to face numerous challenges which the assembly is best placed to address,” said Mr Mwine Kabeho, the vice chairman of the body. He made the remarks during consultations when a high-powered delegation of the council visited the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) in Arusha earlier this week. Mr Kabeho, who is the director of the Uganda-based Madhvani Group Limited, said hurdles such as trade barriers within the East African Community (EAC) hampered fast tracking of integration programmes. These, according to him, include the unresolved issue of non-trade barriers (NTBs) and failure to harmonise domestic taxes. Others are the high cost of air travel and telecommunications in the region despite repeated calls that they be lowered to reduce the cost of doing business. Two months ago, EABC expressed its concern over falling intra-regional trade in the community and called for concerted efforts to reverse the trend. Statistics indicate that intra-EAC trade declined by 10.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014 and by a further 14.6 per cent between 2015 and 2016, largely due to persistent NTBs and restrictions on exports of certain products. EABC ambassador and former Eala member from Kenya Peter Mathuki noted during the discussions that it was time the two institutions worked closely together when seeking solutions to the problems. “We have to resolve many issues for a stronger integration and...

EAST African Community (EAC) has embarked on concrete steps to control and prevent Aflatoxin amid the official launch of nine sets of policy briefs on the poisonous substance. During the launch in Nairobi, Kenya it was declared that the EAC Secretariat has prioritised Aflatoxin prevention and control as one of its flagship projects. The Principal Secretary (PS) in Kenya’s State Department of Agriculture Research, Ministry of Agriculture, Professor Hamadi Boga officiated the launch on behalf of Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation. A communiqué availed here by the EAC Secretariat Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department, Mr Owora Othieno quoted Professor Boga as saying that Africa loses up to 670 million US dollars annually in lost exports due to Aflatoxin contamination, with about 40 per cent of foods in the domestic markets exceeding allowable levels of Aflatoxin in foods. The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes Aflatoxin as poisonous substances produced by certain kinds of fungi found naturally and posing a serious health risk to humans and livestock. They also pose significant economic burden, leading to destruction of over 25 per cent of the world’s food crops, annually. Most human exposure comes from nuts and grains. The PS said that the nine sets of policy briefs on Aflatoxin contain key recommendations on strategic policy actions and interventions required to mitigate the impacts and effects of Aflatoxin. Existing efforts to mitigate Aflatoxin at national level have remained fragmented and not adequately supported, technically and financially....

NAIROBI, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The prolonged conflict in South Sudan has seen Kenyan banks scale down operations in the country, and look for opportunities outside the East African Community (EAC). The banks have halved their branches in South Sudan, initially one of the promising markets, since the war started in 2016. However, as the South Sudan market shrinks, the commercial banks in the East African nation's biggest economy have sought new business or scaled up operations in other countries that include Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo DRC, Malawi, Burundi and Botswana. Some nine banks have subsidiaries outside Kenya, with the institutions increasing the number of the branches to 306 in 2017, up from 297 in 2016, the latest sector report from the Central Bank showed Wednesday. From about 40 branches in South Sudan, Kenyan banks now have only 20 branches, with a majority having closed them down. "Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group continued to scale down its operations in South Sudan following the deteriorating security condition that started in 2016. The bank cut its branch network to 11 from 17 in 2016," said the report. Cooperative Bank has four branches while Equity Bank has five, with the number of branches by the two remaining flat. The banks have, however, spread to Malawi, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi, markets that initially looked distant when South Sudan was promising. "Equity Bank scaled up its operations in Congo DRC in 2007 from 31 to 39 branches. The bank has 79...

What explains DFID interests?  The United Kingdom’s partnership with Africa is incredibly important to us. In the UK perspective, Africa’s success in the medium and long term matters. Uganda rightly aspires to reach the middle income status and that economic growth is going to be important to achieve that. One of the UK’s priorities is to get behind Uganda’s plans to try and improve its economic growth. This is because we know that trade is critical to Uganda’s economic growth and no country in the world has ever achieved economic growth without increased trade. Beyond that, Uganda is a land locked country, it links Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan and DRC. So, the trade link is important for not only Uganda but also the wider East African Community (EAC) region. Because of all that, the UK’s focus is on supporting Uganda to improve its economic growth. We do that in many ways. We spend about £140 million (about Shs662billion) per year only in Uganda. This is in addition to another £60million (about Shs285billion) is spent in multilateral organisations. So in total, the UK will be contributing about £200 million (about Shs946 billion) in Uganda this financial year. That money is spent on various programmes such as improving human capital, health and education. Some of the funds are also spent in improving the country’s roads. We have a programme with the Africa Development Bank to build about 200km of roads that are particularly important for trade routes. Within that, programmes which...

Early at the beginning of the year, members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) conducted on-the-spot inspections of East African Community (EAC) projects, organs and facilities along the two trade corridors; Northern and Central. The aim of the tour was to identify bottlenecks to the effective implementation of the EAC Customs Union Protocol. Among the facilities put in place was the East Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project (EATTFP) set up to reduce transit cargo time by eliminating Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and enhance safety. While many unnecessary weigh bridges were removed along the Central Corridor and resting areas for long distance truck drivers set up - at least after every 12 hours on the road - the safety issue still lags behind. When EALA members arrived at the Rusumo One-Stop Border Post along the Tanzania-Rwanda border, they pointed at the lack of adequate safety and emergency measures. Seeing the number of trucks hurdled together, with some carrying inflammable liquids and gases, it was as if they were waiting for disaster to strike … and it did this week. A fuel tanker on the Tanzanian side lost control and rammed into other parked trucks sparking an enormous explosion. The nearest fire engine was in Rwamagana, a two-hour drive on the Rwandan side. Rwanda National Police also sent another fire engine from Kigali. Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) had the quickest option; it immediately swung into action and dispatched its fire-fighting helicopter into action. It was not the first time RDF choppers had...

When Kenya put pen to paper next month to sign a Sh380 billion contract for the second phase of the Standard Gauge Railway(SGR), the total cost for the project will hit Sh800 billion. The Mombasa-Nairobi phase cost Sh327 billion, the extension to Naivasha costs Sh150 billion and the final phase will cost Sh380 billion. According to government's plan, phase 2B of the SGR project will start at the planned Naivasha Industrial Park where Phase 2A ends. It will pass through Narok, Bomet, Kericho counties and terminate in Kisumu where the government will put up a modern inland port. The railway line will have 25 stations including a county station in Kisumu, six intermediate stations, and 18 crossing stations. A statement posted on the FOCAC website on August 1 said that a contractor of the extended Nairobi-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) had already started laying tracks and rail sleepers as implementation of the mega infrastructure project gathers steam. The contractor, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) said the laying of tracks and rail sleepers is being carried out from Narok towards Nairobi. The 120-km Nairobi-Naivasha line is the first of the three segments that make up the second phase of the SGR project that ends in Malaba town located at the Kenya-Uganda border. The site quoted Steve Zhao, the CCCC Kenya SGR Project spokesman, saying the erection of t-beams and laying of the rail sleepers from Nairobi will be handled by section office number seven while section office number six will oversee...

The Kenya Ports Authority has recorded an overall improvement in its key year on year performance indicators as well as an increase in cargo handled six months into the year. In June the port handled throughput of 2,720,000-deadweight tonnage (DWT) representing a 0.6 per cent increase compared to the same month last year, a report released yesterday showed. The growth is attributable to an increase in dry bulk and containerised cargo, which recorded an increase of 6.8 per cent and 10.6 per cent respectively. January to June saw the port register a 2.4 per cent growth in throughput compared to the same period last year. Imports took a lion’s share of the throughput at 83.6 per cent, while exports registered 12.5 per cent. Transshipment cargo recorded 3.6 percent of the total traffic. The strong freight figures were equally demonstrated by the growth of container traffic. In June, the port registered 106,153 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEU’s) compared to 99,727 TEUs handled last year and posting an increase of 6.9 percent. The cumulative container traffic from January to June saw an increase of 5.3 per cent with the port handling 614,625 TEUs compared to 583,661 TEUs during a similar period last year. Speaking on the performance report, KPA’s acting managing director Daniel Manduku said whereas the increase of throughput and container traffic is an indication of vibrant economic activities in the region, the performance indicators of the port authority had equally improved. “Numbers give a concise picture and our performance indicators...

ACA is expected to use the funds to develop an online platform that will improve the efficiency of tracing and seizing of counterfeit goods. The signing ceremony will be witnessed by the ACA Executive Director, Elema Halake, and TMA Kenya Country Director, Ahmed Farah. This kitty will go a long way in supporting Kenya’s renewed war on counterfeits. According to a study on the vice of counterfeiting in Kenya, which was done in 2012, it is estimated that Kenyan manufacturers are losing at least 40 per cent of their market share to counterfeiters. An approximate Ksh30 billion (US$ 42 million) is lost by Kenyan manufacturers annually, while the government loses Ksh6 billion (US$80million) as potential tax revenue. The move by TMA comes at a time when the government has heightened the war against counterfeits. In May this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned a multi-agency team to lead the fight against counterfeits and illicit trade in the country. It constitutes the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), the National Police Service, Kenya Railways, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Board, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Anti Counterfeit Agency, Public Health services, Immigration services and Weights and Measurements Service Kenya. The team which has heightened surveillance in the country’s points of entry has been conducting raids which have successfully nabbed counterfeit goods worth more than Ksh76.5 billion. During a recent briefing to the President, the multi-agency team said it had identified key areas in which it will focus on as it continues with...