The Fifth Annual Devolution Conference opened on Monday in Kakamega county -- once again bringing the 47 heads of the devolved units and relevant agencies to Western Kenya. This is not just good news for Kakamega only but for all the Western Kenya counties, partly because of the vast hospitality business opportunities that come with it as well as the multiple trading moments it offers local business people. At the start of devolution, most counties experienced “teething problems” which greatly impacted negatively on service delivery to the citizenry. There were public complaints on county officers and their inability to run the counties. The wars between some governors and members of the county assembly slowed many activities. It is however a fact that most new things have a kick-off slow time. Over time, there have been huge benefits and successes of devolution and in particular in the field of hospitality. Devolution has opened up most areas of our country. I came to Kisumu in 2015 to run the then new four-star Acacia Premier set up by Simba Corporation in the lake city. I have seen Kisumu and the western region grow in terms of hospitality with new modern hotels coming up in the counties in the last two to three years. My hotel is already fully booked and so are the many other hotels in Kisumu and larger Western region for the conference. Kisumu has been a host to major local and East Africa Annual conferences. The city hotels have also...

The East African Community produces only less than 30 per cent of the medicines it needs while it imports the rest, a situation that must be reversed to ensure citizens easily access affordable drugs, officials have said. This revelation was made last week during the launch of a 10-year strategic plan for pharmaceutical manufacturing at the EAC seat in Arusha, Tanzania. The launch was held on the margins of the first regional vaccine production symposium. “Vaccines are among a category of medicines that the region wholly depends on imports as currently there is no local production capacity. There is a vacuum and nature hates vacuum,” said Kirunda Kivejinja, the chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers. Kivejinja is also Uganda’s second deputy prime minister and minister for East African Community affairs. “We are determined to reverse these negative trends and strengthen local production capacity,” he said, noting that the 2017-2027 roadmap seeks to address this issue. According to Christophe Bazivamo, the deputy EAC secretary-general for productive sectors, the action plan will guide the bloc towards evolving into an efficient and effective pharmaceutical industry. The bloc views the local production of essential medicines as contributing to attaining sustainable development goal (SDG) 3.8 – achievement of universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health care services, and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all – in a more sustainable manner than through delivery of donated drugs to developing countries. “I am happy...

Cargo owners will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets to vacate their cargos at the Embakasi ICD. This is after the Kenya Airport Authority yesterday announced that it has resolved to reduce the number of free storage days for import containers from 11 to 4 days. Kenya Ports Authority MD Catherine Muturi said the move similar to the one at Mombasa deport will encourage importers to hasten collection of their cargo. Muturi said the storage period for exports and empty containers will however remain at 7 days at the Inland Container Deport at Nairobi. She said cargo owners will be charged once the free storage period elapses. “In order to promote the use of the Inland Container Depot Nairobi by Nairobi and Transit clients, who wish to nominate the ICDN as their point of cargo delivery, Kenya Ports Authority has given a rebate reducing the handling charges for SGR cargo by 30 percent,” she said. Muturi said the handling charges for local import containers for SGR cargo is USD 80 per twenty foot equivalent units down from USD 103, and USD 120 for forty foot equivalent units down from USD157. She said for transit containers handling charges are USD60 per twenty foot unit and USD90 for forty foot unit. “I wish to clarify that for ICD containers, the counting for free storage period starts when the containers land at the ICD and not in Mombasa and the shipping lines have been advised accordingly for purposes of charging container...

A fresh round of trade wars is simmering in East Africa after Tanzania and Uganda imposed taxes on Kenya made confectionery products like chocolate, ice cream, biscuits and sweets citing use of imported industrial sugar in the goods. The two states have rejected certificates of origin issued by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and opted to levy 25 per cent import duty on Kenyan confectioneries. Acceptance of the certificate-- a document showing where a good has originated so as to determine the import duty chargeable — guarantees Kenyan goods tax-free entry into Uganda and Tanzania. East Africa Community common market made up of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi allows free movement of locally manufactured goods within the bloc. Tanzania and Uganda revenue authorities have however accused the Kenyan manufacturers of tilting competition in their favour by using industrial sugar imported under a 10 per cent duty remission scheme. The region does not produce industrial sugar. Last week, Kenyan firms accused Uganda and Tanzania of using the customs taxes to restrict trade in East Africa. “This is an EAC-wide remission scheme that is available to all manufacturers in the region,” said Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) chief executive Phyllis Wakiaga. “We are not supposed to pay duty when we sell in the region because our competitors in the region also rely on industrial sugar imported under the same remission scheme.” KRA has come to the defence of Kenyan firms saying confectionery products made of industrial sugar imported under the EAC...

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday pressed Kenya's case in trade and health in a round of events in London on the sidelines of the Commonwealth meeting. Kenya has had a rocky relationship with key Commonwealth countries and President Kenyatta's administration says it is keen to recast those relations, and especially with Britain. Britain's decision to leave the European Union is seen in Nairobi as an opportunity to renew trade and investment relations. After Jubilee won the 2013 election despite threats of "consequences" and "essential contact" by Western capitals, President Kenyatta went round the world courting unlikely allies to spur Jubilee's economic agenda. Amid misgivings in the West that the country's diplomacy has turned East, the President insisted that is not the case, and that his government is looking for friends and partners irrespective of geography and persuasion to confront economic challenges and global threats like terrorism. PARTNERSHIPS Still, the reality belied this as one mega contract after another went East, and western countries and the institutions of capitalism suspended one project after another over governance concerns. In diplomatic circles, it was clear that something had to give and the West blinked first, hosting him and rewarding Kenya with high profile global meetings. "We are not looking East or West. We are looking for friends and partners," he said, a message similar to the one he opened with in his visit to the UK to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The meeting's theme is 'Partnerships in building democracy,...

NAIROBI, April 19 (Xinhua) -- East African countries said Thursday they have started developing a harmonized forest policy and strategy to increase forest cover and contain drought. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) countries who met in Nairobi said the initiative is aimed at improved contributions of forests resources to national economies for poverty reduction, environmental sustainability and development of the IGAD member states. "The initiative will contribute to the increment of forest cover to help contain drought that has been a major problem in the Horn of Africa," said Debalkew Berhe, IGAD's Program Manager for Environmental Protection during a forum in Nairobi. Berhe noted that the regional bloc was mandated with the responsibility of managing drought and desertification but over a period of time changed to sustainable development but drought continued to worsen productivity in the region. "Our solution is to develop a harmonized forest policy and strategy to help increase forest cover to improve rainfall pattern, increase food security, address water problem and help address climate change," he added. Berhe said that once the forest policy and strategy becomes effective, it will help address issues on socio-economic benefits of the forestry. According to Gabriel Rugalema, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Representative in Kenya, with the rising population in the region, there is need for forest policy and strategy to help reduce pressure on natural resources. Rugalema said that given the livelihood opportunities provided by forests and woodlands, it is not surprising that over the past few...

Dodoma — The government is seeking to take a certain degree of control over the design, finance and operations of the prospective Bagamoyo port project, Parliament was told yesterday. This came to light as talks between the government and the investors drag on. Estimated to cost $10 billion (about Sh22.3 trillion), construction of the Bagamoyo port and a special economic zone (SEZ) was slated to take off in January, this year, according to details obtained from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in December 2017. However, it was revealed in Parliament yesterday that the process would not begin until the government strikes a deal with the investors through a public-private partnership agreement. This would assure the government of the project's risk management, security details, financial gains - and nature of the contract. Works, Transport and Communications deputy minister Elias Kwandikwa said construction of the port would begin soon after the ongoing talks are completed, and a contract is signed between the government and the investors. Later, speaking in an exclusive interview with The Citizen outside the august House, Mr Kwandikwa revealed that the government "prefers a contract that would assure the county of revenue and jobs for its people". According to him, ports are projects that could potentially endanger a country's security. "We need to have control of the entrance gate so that we can assure ourselves that it doesn't turn into a transit point for illicit goods into the country," he said. Earlier, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa (Bagamoyo-CCM) had...

Nairobi — The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) will soon start handling conventional cargo after the extension of the rail line to cover 10 berths at the Port of Mombasa. SGR Project Manager Engineer Maxwell Mengich said completion of the extension line will make it possible for cargo discharged from a ship loaded directly into the SGR.The line will be completed by August according to the Kenya Railways officials. Its completion will enable SGR to handle non-containerised (conventional) cargo such as clinker, fertiliser, grains, and steels.The extension of the Sh327 billion Mombasa-Nairobi SGR which will cover 10 berths at the Port of Mombasa will be complete by August. (NMG) Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina said the construction work is more than 50 per cent complete. "The bridge is intended to connect SGR to berth number one to 10, which largely handles bulk and other conventional cargo," Mr Maina said.He said the SGR line is currently connected to berths number 11 to 21, which mostly handle containerised cargo discharged at the port by a ship. "We are also targeting conventional cargo since we have wagons that can handle this too. On the Nairobi side, such cargo will be handled at the Nairobi Freight Terminal (NFT), which is next to the terminus," Mr Maina told Business Daily during an interview. He said the reason for linking all berths to the SGR line is to ensure efficiency at the port and utilise effectiveness of the facility to generate revenue. "The focus is to...

A Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) train fully laden with 108 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of Maersk Line Through Bill of Lading (TBL) containers arrived in Nairobi from Mombasa last 13 April. Compared to the Meter Gauge Railway, the 472-km journey through the SGR is expected to reduce the cargo transport time from an average of 48 hours to 8 hours. Mombasa is one of the main gateways to the landlocked countries in Eastern Africa. The Kenya Ports Authority reported approximately 676,921 TEU full containers came through the port of Mombasa in 2017. Of this, about 80 percent are imports and 20 percent exports. According to Mads Skov-Hansen, Maersk Line Eastern Africa Managing Director, the direct link between the port in Mombasa and the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Nairobi offers alternative solutions to transport cargo from Kenya’s international trade partners to key inland markets. “Moving goods shipped by Maersk Line, to Mombasa, onward through inland corridors in a timely and efficient manner is crucial to our customers. Solutions to transport massive cargo volumes quickly, safely, and efficiently to delivery destinations from outside Kenya give our customers the ability to better control their supply chain,” says Skov-Hansen. He added that this is a crucial process to Kenya as a trading nation and investment destination. Introducing efficiencies into the import and export processes, by putting in place infrastructure and clearer processes to support this results in reduced costs, faster delivery to market, and ultimately gives local businesses a boost. “We work with...

President Paul Kagame has said that even with the recent signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), African leaders must work to improve the business environment for citizens to fully benefit from the trade deal. Kagame was yesterday speaking in the United Kingdom at the Commonwealth Business Forum organised on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Yesterday’s business forum convened government and business leaders to deliberate on whether Africa’s growth story is still alive and well, with a special focus on intra-African trade and attracting investment into Africa. In a panel session that also featured South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, Kagame said that leaders have to continuously improve their business environment to reap the full benefits of opening up the continent. “African Continental Free Trade Area was adopted last month by African leaders. Trade and investment are set to grow across the continent, creating opportunities for manufacturing and value addition. “We as leaders still have to make sure that the business environment keeps improving, so that citizens can fully benefit from trade and free movement,” he said. The agreement could go into force by the end of this year following the signing of the deal by 44 AU member states in March at an extraordinary African Union Summit held in Kigali. More countries are set to sign the agreement during the next African Union Summit slated for July in Mauritania. Kagame said that what has been done so far was a...