Clearing and forwarding practitioners want East Africa (EA) governments to pass laws regulating the industry to deter malpractices associated with handling import and export cargo. The Federation of East African Freight and Forwarders Associations(FEAFFA) this week said that introduction of a Single Customs Territory for the region had affected their operations as they were now required to understand how each country’s law are applied on matters import or export cargo. FEAFFAs executive director John Mathenge said there was also need to have a single regulatory authority for the East African Community (EAC) to help create a seamless arena for clearing agents and freight forwarders to operate in. “The Bill is an important step towards creation of a harmonised regime making it easy for our members to operate across borders while ending the raging confusion that makes it impossible to create rules and regulations for our industry,” he said. The meeting observed that Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda were yet to formulate a standard definition of tasks handled by FEAFFA members creating loopholes for graft to thrive at ports and border points. It noted that heightened activities at ports also saw many FEAFFA members engage in undercutting deals, adversely affecting operations and causing disagreements among members that have in the past raised integrity issues affecting even customs officials. Mr Mathenge said while the EAC had passed a law defining the role of FEAFFA members and customs agents, no country had domesticated the same denying them an opportunity to formulate professional standards...

The East African Community partner states have agreed to renew the war on water hyacinth. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda also proposed that governments and other players develop pollution prevention and control master plans for all major sources of pollutants within the lake basin. These are some of the 23 recommendations made by scientists from the regional bloc that are expected to ensure sustainable development of the Lake Victoria Basin. The scientists, who presented a record 47 research papers, concluded that the campaign to save Lake Victoria needs firm political commitment and more resources. Last week, during the Lake Victoria Basin Environmental Research and Scientific Conference in Mwanza, Tanzania, permanent and principal secretaries from the five partner states signed the resolutions for the first time in the region’s history. Raymond Mngodo, the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project regional coordinator, read the recommendations on behalf of the delegates. CLIMATE SMART TECHNOLOGIES The proposals require the states to develop a shared basin-wide framework for water quality monitoring and research. The delegates also recommended cleaner production technologies among industries and municipalities as an industrialisation strategy for the basin. “The recommendations from this conference should be used to advance sustainable development agenda to the Lake Victoria Basin Commission’s strategic plan 2016-21,” Dr Mngondo said. Another issue that emerged was the need to profile, prioritise and promote climate smart technologies, adaptation and resilience strengthening measures. This includes promotion of alternative energy efficient technologies to reduce the effects of climate change. Partner states were also...

Arusha/Kigali — Reconciliation talks between the warring parties in Burundi ended here yesterday with the facilitator, Retired President Benjamin Mkapa, admitting there were still some hurdles in the process. "There are disagreements on the modalities for implementation on key issues on the roadmap to peace," he said in a statement issued to journalists as the third round of the Inter-Burundian Dialogue session ended without much progress following the reported boycott of government representatives. Mr Mkapa said due to the hurdles impeding the talks, there was an imperative need to hold an extraordinary meeting of the Heads of State of the East African Community (EAC) "to address the impediment of the process". He noted that he would inform the mediator of the Burundi crisis, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and the current chairman of the EAC Summit, President John Magufuli, on the need to hold another extra-ordinary summit to discuss the political turmoil in the EAC partner state. Mr Mkapa added that although the participants of the just-ended talks had shown appreciation on the progress made so far by himself and the Ugandan Head of State, they have urged for the earliest involvement of the EAC leaders "to add impetus to the resolution of the crisis". The just-ended dialogue was attended by former Burundian heads of state Sylvester Ntibantunganya, Pierre Buyoya and Domicien Ndaizeye, leaders of various political parties and United Nations envoy on Burundi Jamal Benomar. The African Union (AU) was also represented. Speaking to reporters after the talks, the...

The recent big fight over seats in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has led to questions over what is at stake. Answers to the question are important, not least because, fierce competition for the seats rages in almost all EALA member states. Kenyan EALA MP, Abubakar Zein Abubakar, told The Independent that the race in Nairobi is likely to be hot. "Right now you have not heard anything because the Kenyan parliament has not yet advertised for people to apply but once they do, you will see all the movements," he said. In 2012, the EALA race in Kenya was characterised by fierce competition. Up to 119 candidates applied for the five seats of the main Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party. These were shredded down to 63 and presented to parliament on the day of voting. The ODM was the majority party led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The other parties were Party of National Unity (PNU), Kenya Africa National Union (KANU), National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) and Wiper and they all got one seat as ODM took up five seats. Abubakar, an ODM representative says it will be a different situation since the last elections, held in 2013 slightly changed the representation in the Kenyan parliament. He says this time, ODM will be entitled to five seats, The National Alliance (TNA) of Uhuru Kenyatta will have 3 seats, and United Republican Party (URP) of William Ruto will have 2 seats. The independents will not have a representative because...

Carmen Nibigira, the Coordinator at the East Africa Tourism Platform, has earlier today already been available for interaction to get her feedback to the EATP web portal launch of yesterday. The presentation was well received by the audience in the room and comments were exclusively positive, that another avenue to promoted ‘Destination East Africa‘ had been created and was now active and open for use. Said Carmen to this correspondent: ‘Let me start by registering my and our team’s sincere gratitude to regional governments and their respective tourism boards for the commitment to regional tourism development and marketing. This is the first time that Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda have committed and successfully executed joint promotional initiatives- Destination East Africa Portal joint Advertisement and Documentary. These promotional initiatives are timely, more so, given the prospects for tourism development in our region. They will enlighten our domestic and regional tourists on simplified travel procedures and help entice them to explore East Africa. It is our hope that they will cement our belief in regional tourism and help set the stage for further innovations in regional tourism marketing‘. She then continued to say that the East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP), as an organization was delighted to report that concerted efforts- as public and private stakeholders were fruitful. EATP steadfastly keeps working towards the creation of a single and competitive tourism destination. Key achievements have been made in the adoption of a Joint Tourism Marketing Committee with regional strategy, a single destination brand; that...

Kigali — Strained relations between Burundi and Rwanda continue to hurt some operations of the East African Community (EAC), including failure by officials of either side to attend a regional meeting on another state. Diplomatic sources say although the EAC Council of Ministers--the policy organ of the Community--intervened recently by directing that meetings continue to be held on rotational basis in different capitals as usual, the situation has not been back to normal. The EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko acknowledged during his visit to the Rwanda capital early this week that when there are meetings of the Community in Kigali, delegates from Burundi do not attend and vice versa. The Community boss was quoted by the Rwanda media yesterday, saying that for the last one year the Council of Ministers has been trying to address the issue but without much success. It emerged, however, during talks between Ambassador Mfumukeko and the Rwanda minister responsible for EAC Affairs, Mr Francois Kanimba, that there had been some improvement over the relations between the two neighbouring states and that the opportunity should be used to fully normalise the relations. The minister said there was a time government officials in his country and Rwandans in general declined to travel to Burundi for security reasons and vice versa, though he has seen significant improvement in recent months. Relations between the two countries took a nose dive from the middle of 2015 at the height of violent protests in the Burundi capital over President Pierre Nkurunziza's...

Three East African countries can now jointly market their tourism products on line with the launch of the first joint East African destination portal. Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer Betty Radier joined other top tourism officials from Uganda and Rwanda in the unveiling the platform at the Pearl of Africa Trade Expo held at the Serena Kampala in Uganda over the weekend. The portal will be a shared platform for tourism trade operator to place their multi-country-packages promoting Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda; and provide a new channel to reach regional and international audiences. It will also allow access to tourism information on products, experiences and destinations, all on a single platform with the aim of enhancing availability of information in the region, as well as accessibility to the tourism supply chain. “The launch of the portal comes in stride with the East Africa striving to work together for the betterment of her people. If ever there was a better time for Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya to come together, it is now. Our economies are growing stronger and travel has been made easier due to the great improvements in our infrastructure,” said Radier. She added:“The fact that members’ countries can easily access each other’s countries by road, rail or even short distance flights should encourage more inter-country visits. Why travel the world when one has not explored the amazing beauty that East Africa as a whole has to offer?” KTB attended the expo aiming to strengthen Kenya’s ties with Uganda...

The United Kingdom has promised to strengthen trade and investment links with the East African Community Partner States for mutual benefit. UK High Commissioner to Tanzania, Ms Sarah Cooke, said that her country would remain an outward focused trade-based economy with strong partnerships with other countries and regional economic blocs even in the wake of Brexit. The high commissioner was speaking after she presented her credentials to the EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha. Ms Cooke said the UK would create new partnerships with the EAC aimed at promoting private sector-led economic growth for employment creation and poverty reduction in the East African region. The envoy disclosed that the UK was the biggest contributor to Trade- Mark East Africa (TMA), adding that the funding to TMA was being utilised to finance technical assistance to the EAC in sectors such as customs, trade, investment and video teleconferencing. On his side, Amb. Mfumukeko said his priorities over the next four years would be to promote the free movement of persons and labour as enshrined in the EAC Common Market Protocol; increase investment for job creation and improve agriculture to ensure food security and create employment for the youth in East Africa. Source: All Africa

EAS Africa offers friendly investment ground for German investors that assures high rate of return than any other developing region in the world. This was said by the Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed at the Second German- African Business Summit organized by the East African Business Council (EABC) held in Nairobi last week. The meeting that attracted over 500 participants from business and politics provided opportunity to explore new markets, meet potential business partners and discussed opportunities and challenges on the business environment in Africa. “East Africa region is ready for and welcomes German investors to pursue investment opportunities to reap high rate of return than any other developing nation in the world,” she said. The EABC Chairman Mr Audace Ndayizeye said EABC has agreed to collaborate with the German African Business Association and other important German players as part of a ‘German – East African Advisory Forum’. In addition, the German African Business Association agreed to collaborate with EABC by jointly organizing the EAC – German Business Conference by end of the year. “The conference will not only look at financing for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) but also on which Foreign Direct Investment come from other countries to the EAC that Germany misses out” he said. On his part, the EABC Vice Chair Kenya, Ambassador Dennis Awori said, “Regional integration offers a larger market and common laws which reduce business cost of such as stocking in each different country” The panel discussions noted that regional integration successes...

As the East Africa region grows fast in Africa, policies to promote transformation of transport to economic corridors should be put in place to facilitate more dynamic movements of people, goods, services and money. Presenting the working paper on 'Dynamism and Future prospects of Economic Corridors in the East African Region', Chairperson for DAIMA Associates Limited, Prof Samuel Wangwe, said in the recent years new economic movements have emerged. "Growth poles which are an agglomeration of production, logistics and consumption centres have also emerged. Those growth poles have been connected more deeply through transport corridors and by so doing those corridors have been transformed from simple transport corridors to economic corridors," he noted. He said planning the corridor development and its surrounding area can maximise development benefits through engagement of public-private partnership for sustainability. DAIMA Chairperson said prioritising economic potential available in transportation corridors should be given priority by creating friendly business and trade policies. Expounding further he said through absorbing energies from Indian and Arabic world across the Indian Ocean, the region has witnessed more dynamic movements of people, goods, service and money along the economic corridors. As the corridor will not grow without doing anything, he said developing master plan to study them and growth poles was important. The plan will assist in implementation of projects and executing the transformation of process. Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Senior Representative, Mr Amatsu Kuniaki, said they commissioned DAIMA Associates to produce the working paper with interest in looking at the...