Recycling at work GIKOMBA market, just north of Nairobi’s downtown, is a place to buy just about anything. At its entrance, where ragged minibuses splash their way through rutted red mud, stalls sell piles of pillows, plastic toys, cutlery and soap. Source: The Economist

The government will not issue a blanket ban on the importation of second-hand clothes popularly known as mitumba. Industry and Enterprise Development Principal secretary Julius Koris said the government and the East African Community do not plan to ban the sale of mitumba without providing alternatives for consumers and traders. Korir told a national stakeholders' workshop on Thursday that the matter is sensitive and needs to be addressed seriously. The government plans to ban the importation of mitumba clothes in phases over the next three years. The plan is also being considered at the EAC level, with Uganda already crafting laws to stop mitumba imports. The PS said the industry needs interventions such as removing barriers and creating incentives for investors to make the trade more competitive, for competition with evolving markets. EAC states, Korir added, should develop an effective and sustainable implementation environment for policies formulated to address the issue. Tabled proposals, other than the ban, include raising the duty rates for finished clothes to above 50 per cent or a minimum specific duty of $10 (Sh1,013). Another option is setting up regional fall-back processing parks to produce clothes at cheaper rates for the domestic market. Source: The Star

Kenya and its neighbors Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda have fully embraced the Electronic Single Window System and are now effectively coordinating in cargo clearance and tracking. The system facilitates exchange of data among the East African Community (EAC) countries. It is supported by the tracking system that monitors cargo from their check-off point to destination point, avoiding dumping and theft. Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Paul Kagame of Rwanda,Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir ushered in the system in Nairobi two years ago. Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda South Sudan and Tanzania are all expected to adopt to the system that harmonizes border control. The countries have to align their custom clearance systems to the new electronic platform, enabling seamless operations. The result is now faster and efficient trade, improved business environment and the introduction of paperless cargo clearance. “The time within which it takes to clear goods has reduced tremendously. At the central corridor, it now takes 3 days, down from the 18 days while in the northern corridor, there is a significant reduction from 21 days to 5 days,” Ambassador Dr. Richard Sezibera former EAC Secretary – General said at the 17th heads of states meeting in Arusha. He remarked that campaigns to ensure realization of cargo clearance system had duly paid off. He affirmed that for instance, “Those visiting the Port of Mombasa will witness revenue officials from the rest of the Partner States clearing goods.” According to TradeMark Africa, a charter signed by President Uhuru...

GIKOMBA market, just north of Nairobi’s downtown, is a place to buy just about anything. At its entrance, where ragged minibuses push their way through rutted red mud, stalls sell piles of pillows, plastic toys, cutlery and soap. But the most common wares are second-hand clothing. Piles of old T-shirts and jeans; winter jackets, incongruous in the equatorial heat; dresses and leather shoes; all are watched carefully by stallholders. This market is the biggest wholesale centre of the mitumba, or used-clothing, trade in east Africa. The clothes worn by the bulk of Nairobi’s population are sourced here. Yet if the governments of the East African Community, the regional trade bloc which comprises Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, get their way, all will change. By 2019 the EAC wants to outlaw imports of second-hand clothes. The idea is that ending the trade in old clothes—mostly donated by their former owners in rich countries—will help boost local manufacturing. On March 10th Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, met market traders upset by the idea, and defended the need for “Kenyan manufactured apparel”. Yet the ban seems sure to fail. itumba trading is a big employer for Kenyans, most of whom work in the informal labour market. By one estimate, there are 65,000 traders in Gikomba alone. Imports have increased massively over the past two decades. In 2015, according to UN data, Kenya imported about 18,000 tonnes of clothing from Britain alone. Whole-salers buy bundles for anything up to 10,000 shillings (about $100), and...

OPINION By Adam Ihucha Arusha — Kenya and Uganda are scrambling for hosting the East African Court of Justice (EACJ), renewing political supremacy wars in the regional body. Kenya is the latest partner state to apply while Uganda had started its spirited lobbying blitz some years back, seeking to enhance its position in the region. Sources say Kenya demanded the EAC heads of state to consider the location of the seat of the EACJ to be in Nairobi, but the 33rd EAC Council of Ministers deferred with the proposal. The EAC Council of Minister's report shows Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania's delegations were of the view that the Kenya's proposal should await a comprehensive analysis of the equitable distribution of benefits and costs among partner states. Nairobi's delegation led by Cabinet secretary responsible for labour and EAC, Ms Phyllis Kandie countered the argument, saying the study had taken too long to be completed. It argued that there were some other institutions such as Kigali-based EAC Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), EAC Kiswahili Commission (EAKC) in Zanzibar, the East African Health Research Commission (EAHRC) in Bujumbura, Burundi, that were established and distributed without the completion of the study. Nairobi was therefore of the view that since it hosts only one of the institutions, it should be considered in hosting the EACJ. According to the outgoing EAC Secretary General, Dr Richard Sezibera, the determination of the seat of the EACJ is a prerogative of the Summit under Article 47 of the Treaty....

The outgoing secretary general of the East African Community, Dr Richard Sezibera, has expressed his appreciation for the support he has received from development partners, noting that the EAC Partnership Fund was more than a monetary support. He was speaking in Dar es Salaam mid this week at the fourth High-Level Dialogue of the EAC Partnership Fund. The dialogue was co-chaired by the Norwegian Ambassador, Hanne Kaarstad, and the EAC secretary general and attended by heads of diplomatic missions accredited to the EAC as well as members the EAC Partnership Fund. “The Partnership Fund is a forum for dialogue and creates avenues for discussing key integration issues and mobilising political support for EAC regional integration,” added Dr Sezibera, who also noted the positive growth of the fund since 2011. He called on development partners to honour their pledges through actualising pending disbursements which currently stand at 24 per cent for the financial year 2015/16. The outgoing EAC chief underscored the importance of the basket fund to the EAC, noting the significant support the Partnership Fund had given to the bloc, including financial support to the implementation of the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols; Private Sector development; finalization of the One-Stop Border Post regulations; negotiations and finalization of the EAC Monetary Union Protocol; institutional strengthening including the EAC Institutional Review; enhancing public awareness of the EAC; and development of EAC Vision 2050 among many other projects that have been completed or were currently ongoing. The secretary general further disclosed to...

In Summary The East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) believes the enactment of an omnibus law would cure, if not overcome, challenges of harmonisation of the member countries’ legislations on the community and implementation of joint programmes. Advertisement Arusha. A new legislation intended to harmonise all national laws pertaining to the East African Community (EAC) by all partner states has been proposed. The East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) believes the enactment of an omnibus law would cure, if not overcome, challenges of harmonisation of the member countries’ legislations on the community and implementation of joint programmes. The regional Assembly, which ended its plenary session in Dar es Salaam recently, also wants an administration law for the Common Market Protocol be instituted to ensure its smooth implementation. “The assembly is of the view that such a move shall cure existing challenges of harmonisation of partner states’ laws pertaining to the community,” said Bobi Odiko, the spokesman of Eala in a statement to the media. In the same vein, the Eala session, the first to be held in the country’s commercial capital in nearly three years, tasked the EAC Council of Ministers to prioritise harmonisation of laws for EAC “in order to facilitate integration within the set time frames”. The Council, which is the policy organ of the community, directed the Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs to expedite implementation of the entire Article 126 of the EAC Treaty which obliges partner states to harmonise legal training and certification and encourage standardisation...

The UK has outlined plans to increase its support for infrastructure development in Africa and encourage further investment on the continent. The UK's Africa minister James Duddridge told an infrastructure conference hosted by the international and current affairs think-tank Chatham House in London on 15 March: “Infrastructure is a pipeline for money. Airports, railways and roads are all pipelines for economic activity. This requires local knowledge and skills but also global expertise and help to get people and money moving.” “UK companies have skills and expertise from project design, through planning and implementation,” Duddridge said. “British architects, professional services, legal firms and capital markets are among the best in the world and stand ready to support infrastructure development on the continent.” Duddridge said there was “no quick fix” for infrastructure challenges in Africa, but part of a new UK-led ‘Prosperity Fund’ for the region, worth £1.3 billion ($1.8bn) over five years, “will be used to help Africa grow out of poverty”. Duddridge said current UK projects include supporting “critical feasibility studies” for Tanzania’s government “to secure bigger finance through the World Bank”. “With greater funding, Tanzania can improve the port infrastructure and realise the regional trade benefits that will come from improved freight corridors across Tanzania,” he said. The UK’s Department for International Development is backing a Tanzanian government programme with the World Bank to make the major commercial port city of Dar es Salaam, on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast, “more resilient to extreme weather events”, Duddridge said. Duddridge said...

If economies had faces, then those of Uganda and Tanzania would be wearing smiles right now. The two neighbours reached a milestone when energy ministers from the nations penning a project implementation plan (PIP) on a crude oil pipeline linking them. Once completed, the project would enable over 200,000 barrels of oil to be transported per day from Uganda’s Lake Albert area to Tanzania’s Tanga port on the Indian Ocean coast ready to be supplied to the world. When signing the pact, Uganda’s Energy Minister, Irene Muloni and Tanzania’s Energy and Minerals Minister, Prof Sospeter Muhongo expressed the two state’s desire to fast track the implementation of the project, saying it is an important undertaking for the two nations in the region. Hammering the nail home, Adewale Fayemi of Total E&P Uganda, the French firm undertaking the project, cleared fears over its possible delays, saying there was no likelihood as the funds to build the pipeline are already available. President Magufuli was earlier quoted as having challenged Total to see if completion of the project could be expedited and take less than the years that have been planned. It is rather encouraging to learn that the political will is not wanting on both countries involved in the implementation of the project which, at a certain point, seemed to have been mired in high level regional politicking. On the one hand, neighbouring Kenya had her eyes on the project with the ambitious vision of linking the pipeline with Ethiopia and South...

The East African region has embarked on harmonizing laws on illegal wildlife trade as part of efforts to fight vice. The director, ministry of tourism, wildlife and antiquities, James Lutalo, said they are already working on mechanisms on how they can combat the illicit trade. "We want our laws to be harmonized. We want all countries to have tough punishments for the perpetrators like in Kenya where they have a life sentence," he said. Lutalo disclosed this while closing a five-day workshop training for law enforcement officers from different agencies on the prevention of wildlife trafficking in Entebbe. It was facilitated by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Lutalo said that although the entire East African region remains a transit route of wildlife trafficking, Uganda remains the top-most used route for many wildlife items because of its porous borders and weak laws. Margaret Kasumba, the acting law enforcement coordinator at the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said they seized some 4,000kg of ivory between 2014 and 2015. She said many items go undetected due to poor coordination of various agencies and lack of skills by law enforcers. Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Police also impound 4,310kg of ivory and rhino horns in 2015. - See more at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1420150/east-africa-harmonize-laws-wildlife-trafficking#sthash.rJXe1qrE.dpuf Abel Kagumire, the manager, enforcement operations at URA, said most items were seized at Entebbe Airport disguised as shear butter, while others were camouflaged as matooke and aircraft equipment in transit to Singapore and Netherlands. Lutalo said wildlife trafficking is categorized as...