Kenya on Thursday launched an e-portal for Port Health Services that will boost surveillance against cross border transmission of diseases. Ministry of Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopha Mailu told a media briefing in Nairobi that the digital platform will manage services offered to traders at Kenya’s points of entry. “The management information system is part of the government’s policy of promoting automation of services for greater efficiency,” Mailu said. “The online system will provide a platform for faster electronic processing of applications for export and import health certificates,” he added. Mailu said that the e-portal will greatly contribute towards creation of an enabling environment for business transactions and thus enhance Kenya’s commercial profile. “Importers and exporters will now be able to acquire health certificates in 12 hours as compared to four days under the manual system,” he added. The digital platform will enable Kenya to provide services at the port of entry in line with international health regulations and therefore contribute towards attainment of Global Health Security Agenda. The portal will also provide a forum for port health officers to share information on the movement of goods thoughout the country. Mailu noted that port health services play a very important role in trade facilitation through the inspection of goods of public health importance. “However some of the goods handled are perishable in nature and require to be processed within the shortest time possible,” he said. The portal was funded by TradeMark Africa. The platform will be rolled out on a pilot...

Government has secured funding for the construction of the first logistics hub at the Gulu Railway station, targeting the markets in South Sudan through Alegu and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through West Nile. South Sudan and DRC are Uganda’s largest export markets. According to Mr Benon Kajuna, the director transport in the ministry of Works and Transport, the hub will be constructed on at least 24 acres – provided by the government. The project will cost $8.6m (Shs30.96b) of which $5.6m (Shs20b) is available with funding from DFID and TradeMark Africa. “In October 2016, we completed a pre-feasibility study for the project, with designs expected at the end of this year. Currently, a consultant is working on the proposed design for the project. We expect construction to commence by end 2018,” he told delegates attending the Joint Oil and Gas and Logistics Expo 2017 at Kampala Serena Hotel Conference Centre last week. A logistics hub is a designated area that deals with activities related to transportation, organisation, separation, coordination and distribution of goods for national and international transit, on a commercial basis by various operators. Gulu is one of the four areas designated in Uganda where there is a planned logistics hub. The Gulu hub is expected to serve the two export markets for Ugandan goods but also for re-exports destined for DRC and South Sudan. It will be a Private-Public Partnership (PPP), with some private sector players expected to come on board. According to Mr Mark Pearson,...

Twenty-one Economic Processing Zones (EPZ) based garment factories are headed to Mombasa for a three-day products sale. The sale at Visa Oshwal Grounds starting May 5 follows a successful sale at the KICC in Nairobi. In a public notice, the EPZ said firms will use the occasion to exhaust their 20 per cent local sales window for garments costing between Sh100 and Sh600. The Mombasa event comes after a month-long sale in Nairobi that attracted thousands of buyers. The garments are exported to global retail chains such as 1,014-branch JC Penney (US and Puerto Rico), Walmat (US), Kohl’s (U.S), Macy’s (US), Jones New York (US), Dollar General (US) and Ross (US) among others. Last year, EPZ-based factories earned Sh35.2b billion from finished product exports to Europe, Middle East and the US local. The notice said clothes available include men, ladies and children clothes. The firms provide about 42,600 jobs. Source: Business Daily

The government plans to allow textile firms operating in tax-friendly Export Processing Zones to sell up to 40 per cent of their products locally from the present 20 per cent, President Uhuru Kenyatta said yesterday. The move is part of a strategy to promote growth of industry and create job opportunities for the growing unemployed youth, the president said during the Labour Day Celebrations. An estimated 800,000 fresh graduates are churned into the job markets every year from institutions of higher learning. Kenya has since late 2015 been pushing for a phased ban on second-hand clothes, commonly called mitumbas, as part of the ‘Buy Kenyan, Build Kenya’ policy. President Kenyatta on June 1, 2015, directed state ministries, departments and agencies to procure at least 40 per cent of supplies locally under the policy, but this is yet to be fully implemented. The push by the government is also in line with the directive by the East African Community to member states to phase out importation of second-hand of clothes and leather products by 2019. This is aimed at promoting growth of domestic textile and apparel industry. The European Union and the United States are the largest source of second-hand clothes and shoe imports into the East Africa. President Kenyatta yesterday appealed to dealers in the lucrative mitumba business to start sourcing the merchandise from the EPZ firms. Industry and Trade CS Adan Mohamed in March said the ministry was enhancing partnerships with local textile and apparel industry in a bid...

Kenya’s private sector players have sought help from their Tanzanian counterparts to lobby their government to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe. Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) and the Tanzanian Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) are working on a plan they hope will convince Tanzanian authorities to endorse the deal during the East African Community (EAC) Summit. “The EAC Summit that was to happen in Nairobi in February was postponed to early this month. The summit has been postponed again to a date that is yet to be confirmed. Only Tanzania and Uganda have not ratified the EPA deal and we hope by lobbying with our private sector counterparts, we can have Tanzania sign the deal,” said KEPSA Chief Executive Carole Kariuki in an interview with The Standard. The agreement guarantees EAC member States quota and duty-free access to the European market. Speculation has been rife that the EPA deal is dead in the water, with Tanzania maintaining a hardline stance, arguing that the agreement in its current state would kill off its industries. Ms Kariuki said the two lobbies would be represented at the next EAC summit. Source: Standard Digital

Two years after the announcement of the candidacy of Pierre Nkurunziza for another term that plunged the country into a political crisis, Burundi is struggling to see the end of the tunnel. The summit of Heads of State of the East African Community next month could pave the way for an end to the crisis. In any case, it is the hope of the Burundian people, who do not want to be caught up in despair caused by stalling talks and a political and economic crisis without a solution. It all began on April 25, 2015 with the announcement of another term of Pierre Nkurunziza. A term deemed illegal, unconstitutional and contrary to the observance of the Arusha Peace Agreement by protestors. They took to the streets the very next day, demanding the withdrawal of the candidacy of the outgoing president who had just spent 10 years in office. Protests were harshly repressed by the police. On May 13, 2015, Burundi faced a failed coup d'état while President Pierre Nkurunziza was in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, at the summit of the Heads of State of the East African Community. As a result, part of the political class, opposed to the third term was forced into exile where it created CNARED platform. The outgoing president had no one to stand in his way during the elections. He was re-elected on July 21, 2015. In a meeting in Entebbe, Uganda on 28 December 2015, the mediator in the Burundi conflict, Yoweri Museveni,...

The contrast in elections in Rwanda and Kenya, which both go to the polls in August, has come to the fore with the European Union saying it will not send an expert mission to assess the preparedness in Kigali even as it prepares to send one to Nairobi. The EU will also not send an observer mission to monitor the Rwanda election, something which should not be entirely surprising given that it did not send one in 2010 "for lack of resources." However, this is the first time that the EU will not commit to any of the missions. Unlike an observer mission, which assesses the credibility of an election, an expert mission assesses the potential political, social, media and economic risks before the polls and examines likely interventions. The decision not to send observers for Rwanda's August 4 presidential elections was communicated to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) last week by the head of the EU delegation, Michael Ryan, at a closed door meeting in the company of ambassadors from Germany, UK, France and Belgium. "We are not sending any formal observer missions to the August elections. We don't see the need and have limited resources. There are many elections in the world and we have to decide where to put our resources," Mr Ryan said. Campaigns While the campaigns in Rwanda are restricted to the one month provided for by the Constitution, the campaigns in Kenya kicked off in earnest last week with political parties nominating their candidates...

Arusha — Tanzania has joined its East African Community (EAC) partners-- Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi-- in increasing the pace in harmonisation of local product standards, ready to take advantage of the soon to be introduced Free Trading Area next December. The Director of Trade at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha, Alhaj Rashid Kiboa, revealed here that the proposed establishment of the tripartite FTA between the EAC bloc to the South African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), would become a reality this December, 2017. "That is why this year's 20th Meeting of East African Standards Committee is sitting in Arusha for two days to speed up harmonization of products standards within the EAC region, ready to export goods and services across to Central and Southern parts of the continent as from 2018," said Alhaj Kiboa. However, he pointed out that there was still need for Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South-Sudan to speed up the adaptation and for the Standardization Quality Assurance Metrology and Testing (SQMT) for product certification in the six partner states before venturing further continental. On his part, the Acting Director General for Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Prof Egid Beatus Mubofu reveals that so far more than 100 standards had been harmonized across the region with more to be approved this year, and that it only remains for the six EAC Member States to adopt such benchmarks to ensure that all products met the required quality and...

In her 2010/11 Financial Year budget speech, Finance Minister Syda Bbumba said she envisages that the East African Community (EAC) Common Market which comes into force on July 1 will “stimulate greater productive efficiency, higher levels of domestic and foreign investment, increased employment, and growth of intra-regional trade and of extra-regional trade.” Kenya’s Finance Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, also spoke about how the Common Market would allow freedom of movement of goods, services, capital, business enterprises and skilled labour within the EAC. While most EAC budgets did not show plans on how their economies are positioning to survive and thrive under the Common Market, Kenyatta unveiled a robust plan. The Kenyan economy is far bigger than the combined economies of the other EAC states. Its budget shows that it is positioning itself to gain even more from the free flow of goods and services in the EAC. Kenyatta announced a duo-pronged strategy that looked inwards with the “build Kenya, buy Kenya” theme and an outward looking strategy that ensures competitiveness abroad. He proposed seven bills to support business expansion by cutting-down regulation and easing access to financing. Kenyatta showed he was aware of the apprehension among other states. He said: “Kenya is prepared to fully implement the provisions of the Common Market protocol from 1st July, 2010. I also call upon our brothers on the community to do likewise”. The Kenya budget was similar to the regional budgets in emphasising improving ease of doing business and investing in priority areas like...

The manual was first developed in 2006 and later revised in 2010 to accommodate further changes. Since then, the Government has enacted new immigration laws and policies, key among them; the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act 2011, the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act Regulations 2012 and the East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol in 2010 and the EAC One Stop Border Posts Act2016. In 2014, the government amended the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act, under the Section 75 of the Security Laws (Amendment) Act by adding Section 5A-5D to establish Border Control and Operations Co-ordination Committee (BCOCC) to enhance border efficiency and inter-agency coordination in border management. Additionally, instability, radicalization and armed conflict in neighboring countries have created an uncertain environment for immigration in Kenya which has been addressed in various policy documents including the revised manual. Consequently, these new developments will help address various migration challenges facing Kenya in today’s ever mobile, complex and challenging world. Speaking in Nairobi at the launch, the Director of Immigration Services, Maj. General (Rtd) Dr. Gordon Kihalangwa said that the revised manual will aid border officials tackle a myriad of migration challenges facing Kenya. “Human trafficking, terrorism, and document fraud are some of the complex challenges we are currently facing at our border posts,” he said. On his part, IOM Head of Kenya County Office, Mr. Mike Pillinger, noted that the manual is a result of re-assessing immigration and border management against a backdrop of evolving migration trends, policies, profiles, legislations and...