Kenya’s bid to get landlocked Ethiopia to deepen its commitments to the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor projects is under threat with the launch of a new road linking the Horn of Africa country to a port in Somaliland.

Last Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta led a Kenyan delegation to a Kenya-Ethiopia high level trade meeting in Addis Ababa while a day earlier Somaliland President Muse Abdi graced the groundbreaking of a 254-kilometre dual carriage road linking Ethiopia to port of Berbera

During the trade talks, Uhuru wooed the Ethiopian private sector to partner with Kenya in the Lapsset project and implementation of Big Four agenda on food security, affordable housing, manufacturing and affordable healthcare.

Trade hub

“We also called for the fast-tracking of the ongoing transformation of Moyale town into a cross-border trade hub in the region in line with the 2012 Special Status Agreement,” the president said.

But in hindsight, since the two projects seek to lure the same customer, analysts say Kenya must now move with speed and fast-track projects along the Lapsset corridor or lose out the port business to her smaller sister who is planning to finalise the road project in 22 months, giving landlocked Ethiopia another alternative to a port, after Djibouti, which currently handles roughly 95 per cent of all inbound trade for Ethiopia.

Ethiopia, a nation of 105 million and an emerging economic power house in East Africa, has five neighbours with access to the sea – Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia and Eritrea.

Speaking in Hargeisa during the ground breaking ceremony, President Abdi of the breakaway region said the carriage through the capital city will enhance business ties between the two regions and help in balancing trade with Somaliland which broke away from Somalia in 1991 and has since acted as a de facto independent state although not internationally recognised.

Ethiopia is Somaliland’s biggest trading partner with livestock, khat (Miraa as it is commonly known in Kenya) and products going either way. “The aim of this project is to economic and social integration of the horn of Africa countries,” Abdi, told delegates during the ground breaking ceremony.

He added that Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti should also take advantage of opportunities of an upcoming free zone alongside the new port.

Currently, countries in the region uses ports in Kenya and Tanzania due to insecurity in Somalia, making this road and Berbera port important cog of the region’s trade geopolitics. The road therefore gives Ethiopia’s economy another route even as they eye Kenya’s long term Lamu port project.

Mega project

The deal, however, complicates the equation for Lappsset project which banks on goodwill and ability of other partners such as Ethiopia and South Sudan to fast-track the mega project.

For Somaliland, the $11 billion (Sh110 billion) road project is the second largest since the onset of the $442 million expansion of Port of Berbera by the Dubai state-owned port operator DP World.Somaliland uses the port to export camels and goats to the Middle East and import food and other items and hopes to provide an alternative for neighbouring Ethiopia soon.

Source: Media Max

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