Activists are working tirelessly for an East African Community (EAC) gender barometer, a lobby and advocacy tool measuring implementation of gender equality commitments by partner states, to be set up. According to Elizabeth Ampairwe, the coordinator for women and girls’ empowerment at the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), they are “in the final stages” and working towards having it published by end of February before a regional meeting is held to launch it in April. “We started with country reports, and then moved on to consolidate the reports for a comparative analysis. Key advocacy issues will be picked and policy briefs produced once the process is finalised,” Ampairwe told Sunday Times from Kampala, Uganda. “The purpose is to generate evidence for holding leaders accountable on gender equality.” The inspiration of the EAC gender barometer comes from the work done by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a 15-member grouping of southern African states. Gender Links, a Southern African NGO committed to gender equality reportedly helped champion the SADC project. “They successfully advocated for a SADC gender protocol and they do annual assessments through a SADC gender barometer. They came to Uganda and trained us to spearhead the EAC process which is a replica,” she said. Ampairwe said donors are interested in taking the same agenda to West Africa, and that the AU is already looking for a continental gender barometer. “This process has a big future and the sustainability is almost assured,” she said....

IN SUMMARY But the report also warned that the government’s deficit remained high in Kenya and had widened in Uganda and Ethiopia. The report said that Sub-Saharan Africa growth is expected to pick up modestly to 2.9 per cent in 2017 as the region continues to adjust to lower commodity prices. The Kenyan economy will grow by six per cent this year and stay steady at 6.1 per cent over the next two years, according to the latest World Bank Global Economic Prospects report released this week. Kenya’s projected growth rates are above those of Uganda, which will vary between 5.6 and 6.0 per cent over the next three years, but below Tanzania’s at over 7.0 per cent; and considerably below East Africa’s star performer Ethiopia at under nine per cent. The East Africa region as a whole will continue to see some of the fastest growth rates over the next three years, the report said. A key factor in Kenya’s success has been currency stability, which has helped keep inflation under control and within the target range of the Central Bank. This has resulted in lowering interest rates for the economy, the report added. But the report also warned that the government’s deficit remained high in Kenya and had widened in Uganda and Ethiopia. Confirming other recent reports such as the Economist Intelligence Unit, the World Bank said large infrastructure development projects continue to support robust growth backed by public-private partnerships. External funding for infrastructure grew fastest in the...

IN SUMMARY Mining secretary Dan Kazungu said his ministry would push for a change in the law during the next budget to rein in the black market. Mr Kazungu said the country is losing unquantified but monumental taxes as a smuggling gateway and hub. Kenya is moving to curb illegal mineral trade fuelled by smuggling syndicates through roping in key agencies including the central bank and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) as well as granting generous tax incentives to traders. Mining secretary Dan Kazungu said his ministry would push for a change in the law during the next budget to rein in the black market. “We are working round the clock to ensure that the next Finance Bill that accompanies Budget 2017/2018 has provisions that gives the mining sector a lot of incentives and leeway to help it leapfrog,” he said. “The plan is to advocate zero-rating mineral inflows and fast tracking entry of mineral inflows at border points by working closely with the taxman. We want to make the black market an unattractive option.” Mr Kazungu said the country is losing unquantified but monumental taxes as a smuggling gateway and hub. The Ministry of Mining on Wednesday announced a high level multiagency committee to clamp down on the illicit trade and come up with ways of openly trading in the commodity. The team includes the ministry officials, the Treasury, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, the KRA, Kenya Airports Authority, Kenya Ports...

Supported by the African Agri Council, and hosted by Hypenica, the inaugural Agri Logistics and e-Agri East Africa Summits 2017 are taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from 28 February to 1 March 2017. A delegation of international ICT, logistics and transport infrastructure professionals, together with a line-up of East African agricultural thought leaders, will address the challenges faced by the agricultural sector in the region and to look at ways to unlock the region’s potential. Growing trade volumes in the East African region provides both opportunities and challenges for the agriculture sector. Perishable products often suffer from supply-chain delays and post-harvest losses in remote areas, mostly due to poor infrastructure, lack of appropriate transport systems and a lack of refrigerated transport and storage. Furthermore, the innovative utilisation of African-appropriate technologies and solutions for improved production and increased productivity is often neglected. According to Nico Loretz, Programme Manager, the Agri Logistics and e-Agri East Africa Summits 2017, “It is against this background that the African Agri Council and Hypenica are hosting these two co-located events: It is the only platform of its kind in Africa that brings together proven innovative e-agriculture solutions for preventing post-harvest losses, improved production and increased productivity to improve the supply chain process from farmer to market and to enhance food security in the region.” The joint keynote plenary session, chaired by Ali Mufuruki, Chairman, TradeMark Africa (TMA) and CEO of Infotech Investment Group Ltd will look at a regulatory framework, opportunities in trade agreements, investment needs...

East African Community (EAC) states cannot collectively or individually afford to neglect the development of their manufacturing sector, a UN official has said. In his publication on the challenges of industrialisation within the EAC, Andrew Mold, officer-in-charge of the Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa (SRO-EA) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ENECA), says the best option for the development of EAC industry is to focus on both ‘recapturing domestic markets’ and simultaneously exploiting better the potential of regional markets.” He observes that there are indeed a lot of promising developments across the region that could potentially facilitate greater industrial and manufacturing production. Speaking to The New Times, yesterday,, Mold said the research paper tries to acknowledge the difficulty in terms of industrialisation in the East African Community, adding that the EAC does not have the budget “to make things happen” but individual countries do. “All five countries are suffering similar constraints in terms of industrialisation. The way forward is not the international market but they need to look more at the regional market, including the wider region such as the market in DR Congo,” he said. The EAC industrialisation strategy – whose vision is a globally competitive, environment-friendly and sustainable industrial sector, capable of significantly improving the living standards of the people of East Africa by 2032 – identifies sectors in which the region has potential. However, the paper indicates that the principal problem is that the region on its own has no way of implementing the policies...

The introduction of one-stop border posts has been hailed for improving trade among East African Community (EAC) member countries. The border posts have also made EAC a major economic bloc in Africa, according East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) member and Kenya chapter secretary Judith Pareno. Ms Pareno made the remarks during an EALA sensitisation forum in Isiolo on Tuesday. She lauded the assembly for removing trade barriers at border points, saying the changes had resulted in faster and more efficient movement of people and goods. Nine Kenyan members of the EALA visited a post in Moyale, Marsabit County, on the Kenya-Ethiopia border on Monday while on their sensitisation mission on the importance of the assembly. “Instead of stamping goods and paying taxes [at] every border point in EAC countries, we have ensured they are inspected at one border point,” said Ms Pareno. Although Ethiopia is not a member of the EAC, it enjoys the benefits of trade owing to its border with Kenya. The EALA members regretted that in the 27 counties they had visited, many Kenyans they met did not seem to know much about the regional assembly. BORDER POSTS Border posts within the EAC include Namanga, Taveta/Holili, Lunga Lunga/Hororo, Moyale on the Ethiopia-Kenya border, and Isebania/Sirari on the border of Kenya and Tanzania. Others are Busia and Malaba on the Kenya-Uganda boundary; Kanyaru/Akanyaru and Nemba on the border between Burundi and Rwanda; and Mutukula on the Tanzania-Uganda border. On implementation of laws by member states passed by the...

The year 2014 started on a good note in the annals of EAC integration. This is because it started with a new travel experience for EAC citizens. This is the use of the national Identity Card as an authentic travel document between Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. The development was a result of initiatives agreed upon under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP). The NCIP started as a tripartite engagement of three Presidents, Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda) and Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya) at Entebbe, Uganda on June 25, 2013, to discuss how to co-operate and expedite implementation of commitments agreed upon under the EAC arrangement. It was initially meant to speed up the flow of cargo, construction of the Standard Gauge Railway, crude oil pipeline and refined petroleum products pipeline. It later, however, expanded to include extra clusters that handle ICT, Oil Refinery, Political Federation, Financing, Power Generation, Transmission and Interconnectivity, Commodity Exchanges, Human Resource Capacity Building and Land.  In addition, there are also Clusters that handle Immigration, Trade, Tourism, Labour and Services, Single Customs Territory, Mutual Defence Cooperation, Mutual Peace and Security Cooperation and Airspace Management. It was against this background that the three Heads of State agreed to recognise the National Identity Card as a travel document within the EAC in addition to the national passports and the EAC passport. (The EAC passport has since been upgraded to a new generation e-passport to replace national passports and its issuance has been planned to commence this year). Thus, in...

At exactly five minutes to noon in Port Reitz, Mombasa, yesterday, six of the 56 locomotives that will bestride the Standard Gauge Railway roared to life. The co-joined six-two shunting diesel electric locomotives - four of them freight cars - were pulled off the new SGR marshalling yard in Port Reitz by Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia and other top State officials. A group of Giriama dancers raced alongside, applauding, dancing and singing. And Kayamba Africa belted out their signature tunes, the most relevant one for the occasion being 'Amazing Grace' - "...I was once blind but now I see..." In the driver's seat was a China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) locomotive driver. And behind him to enjoy the historic ride were Mr Macharia, Kenya Railways chairman Jeremiah Kianga, Infrastructure Principal Secretary Irungu Nyakera, Charge de Affairs at the Chinese embassy Yao Ming, Kenya Railways Chief Executive Atanus Maina, CRBC Deputy General Manager Li Qiang, Project Co-ordinator Johnson Matu and Coast Regional Co-ordinator Nelson Marwa. For the first few minutes and under strict supervision of the engineers, the CS and his team fidgeted with the engine - twitching the levers, knobs, screens and buttons on its dashboard before the beast hooted and journalists angling for a perfect shot were yanked off the track. The machine is a contradiction of terms. On the outside it cuts the image of the engines that blazed our meter gauge rail in the 1900s. But inside, it is a blend of the...

Foreign Affairs secretary Amina Mohamed has said abolishing travel visas in the continent will be among her top priorities in her latest bid to head the African Union Commission (AUC). Ms Mohamed said she would also address the infrastructure gap, defend industrialisation and encourage intra-Africa trade if elected AUC chairperson. “We need to remove bottlenecks such as visas,” she said, adding she would push for free movement of goods and services across states. The minister is competing with candidates from Botswana, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Senegal for the AUC job. In July, the African Union’s 54 members unveiled a single continental visa intended to grant citizens easy access to all member states. Some of the common electronic passports were issued to heads of state and senior officials at the AU summit in Kigali with bloc officials saying all citizens would get them by 2020. Ms Mohamed has lined up expediting the common visa distribution, industrialisation and fixing infrastructure gap as key planks of her campaign. “Industrialisation can reduce poverty and create jobs while trade is unifying factor, but we need to fill our infrastructure gaps and facilitate the mobility of people, capital and goods so that our young people can move across borders, exchange ideas, but also find jobs,” she said during a CNBC TV interview. “The 13 per cent intra-African trade is unacceptable. We should at least reach 30 per cent and eventually aim at 60 per cent. “Africa has to stop exporting raw products and jobs while our...

IN SUMMARY Kenya is a beneficiary of the preferential trade pact, Agoa, which allows sub-Saharan African countries to export goods to America tax-free. Textiles and apparel account for about 80 per cent of Kenya’s total exports to the US under the pact. KNBS data shows that women’s trousers and shorts (valued at Sh6.8 billion) topped the list of items that Americans ordered from Kenya in the first 10 months of last year, followed by men’s trousers (Sh6.1 billion) and coffee (Sh2.9 billion). Other items that the world’s largest economy took in from Nairobi are tea (Sh1.8 billion) and titanium (Sh1.6 billion). Titanium is used as an alloy with other metals to produce lightweight metals for jet engines. The United States has strengthened its position as Kenya’s third-largest export destination — making it Nairobi’s most valuable economic partner outside East Africa. Kenya’s exports to the US grew seven per cent to Sh35.3 billion in the first 10 months of 2016 as exports to Britain tumbled by a similar margin to Sh30.9 billion, according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data. The growth saw American consumers open a Sh4.4 billion gap over their counterparts in the UK, wider than the Sh2 billion in 2014 when the US first outpaced Britain to become the third largest importer of Kenyan goods after Uganda and the Netherlands. The KNBS data also shows that the US overtook Britain for the first time as the top source of foreign tourists who visited Kenya in the year...