The pledge by Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Yoweri Museveni, when they met in Mombasa on Wednesday, to enhance trade and co-operation between Kenya and Uganda is a major development in cementing ties between the neighbouring nations.

We challenge them to follow that with tangible actions. This is because several such commitments have been made before at the bilateral or regional levels, but quickly discarded due to suspicion and mistrust.

Moreover, the leaders of the various countries have the penchant for forming and breaking alliances all the time, keeping their populace guessing their every move.

On paper, all six East African Community member states, including new entrant South Sudan, are determined to pursue common economic goals and collectively grow as a bloc.

In reality, however, they tend to operate at cross-purposes.

MIGINGO

Kenya and Uganda have vexed issues that have remained unresolved for years.

For one, they are entangled in a bitter struggle over the tiny Migingo Island on Lake Victoria and, despite several attempts at resolving it, including creating an inter-ministerial task force, little has been achieved.

On Wednesday, the matter once again came up during the meeting, at which the presidents announced a joint commission to tackle the dispute and develop a framework for sustainable fishing on Lake Victoria.

At the centre of the conflict is resource extraction — fishing — with each country claiming ownership of the island that is a vintage launching pad for expeditions on the lake.

This dispute must be resolved and residents allowed to coexist.

FREE TRADE

Kenya and Uganda subscribe to the 2010 East African Common Market Protocol.

Its core thrust is free movement of goods, persons, labour, capital and services as well as the right to establish business.

However, the countries have been tussling over trade matters. Kenya, for instance, is accused of imposing non-tariff barriers on Ugandan goods that block free trade.

Uganda’s traders perpetually complain of Kenya’s protectionist practices as well as logistical hindrances that curtail free movement of goods from Mombasa to the border, and which raise the cost of doing business.

On their part, Kenyan farmers ruminate over influx of consumables such as poultry products and cereals from Uganda that depress the local market and kill productivity.

Both countries stand to gain through open and honest collaboration.

They have strong geo-historical and socio-economic ties that should not be severed at the altar of political expediencies.

Beyond political statements, they must work together with their neighbours to actualise the goals of regional co-operation.