The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has urged the Council of Ministers to act decisively in checking what it called “fraudulent procurement processes” that are allegedly dogging the EAC Secretariat based in Arusha, Tanzania. Besides calling for the central decision-making and governing organ of the East African Community (EAC) to consider enacting a law on financial and procurement management as a necessity, the regional lawmakers also recommended strict compliance with the EAC financial rules and regulations and want punitive action taken against officials who violate rules and procedures. This came up as lawmakers debated a 27-page report of the Committee on Legal, Rules and Privileges on the matter of investigation of procurement of group life insurance Company for the Community. During debate, in Kampala, yesterday, there were mixed reactions although a majority lawmakers spoke strongly against alleged scams at the Secretariat, the executive organ of the Community, which is mandated to ensure that regulations and directives adopted by the Council are properly implemented. MP Abubakar Zein (Kenya) said what he read in the report was “akin to fraud, theft and defrauding the Community.” “Delay [in procurement as reported] was part of an orchestrated design. This is choreographed theft,” Zein said. “The management also ignored the legal advice of the Counsel to the Community and in so doing put the Community and those who serve it at risk.” The EAC Secretary-General, Amb. Libérat Mfumukeko, insisted that during his new term, since last year, he focused efforts on putting things right. Mfumukeko...

Since January 02, signs of bird flu were detected in Uganda where fishermen reported “mass death of wild birds” on the shores of Lake Victoria, near Entebbe, which lies near the capital Kampala. Burundi is on alert. The director in charge of animal health in the Burundian ministry of agriculture and livestock, Mr. Nsanganiyumwami Déogratias says they are aware of the presence of the disease in East African Community since Monday 16th January 2017. “We held a meeting with the minister and competent experts to impose measures to protect people against any contamination”, he says. “Uganda is not very far from Burundi and there are comings and goings of people and merchandises between the two countries. Our experts are working hard to adopt preventive measures against bird flu, which will be communicated soon”. According to Nsanganiyumwami, it is not easy to recognize the disease when it has attacked birds. He, however, advises people especially farmers, to inform immediately veterinarians in case there is a dead chicken. Bird flu also called avian flu/influenza is an infectious disease that spreads very fast among birds and can kill them. It can be transmitted to human beings, causing severe respiratory diseases that may result in death. Its symptoms in humans can vary and range from “typical” flu symptoms (fever, sore throat, muscle pain) to eye infections and pneumonia. The disease caused by the H5N1 virus is a particularly severe form of pneumonia that leads to viral pneumonia and multiorgan failure in many people who...

President Yoweri Museveni has urged the East African Legislative Assembly to force foreigners to develop the region by passing policies that will protect the region's markets. "We need to stop the importation of second hand clothes so that we can develop our textile industries," said Museveni. "When you buy second hand clothes, then you are promoting and improving the economy of the country that produces them." President Museveni urged the assembly and other organs working on the region's integration process to work, support and fast track the East African political integration because it is important for the region's strategic security and a guarantor of the future safety and security of the area. Addressing the 5th session of the 3rd Assembly of the East African Legislative Assembly at Parliamentary buildings in Kampala, Museveni noted that just like economic integration is important for the economic prosperity of the region, political federation is very crucial for strategic security of the region as well as for guaranteeing the safety of the future generations especially against the emerging world giants who continue to compete for the limited world resources. "Our current administrative structures are fragmented and very weak and we have no choice but to unite and safeguard our destiny. What will you do for example if a modern China, with its big population, becomes imperialistic in the future and want to occupy parts of Africa?" he wondered. He said the community is wealthy with a population of 162 million including South Sudan which all...

The U.S. may be a global superpower, but when it comes to trade and investment in Africa, it lags far behind. China, with $200 billion in trade with the continent, more than doubles that of the U.S. That means that while Africans paid attention to the U.S. presidential election, they were much more concerned by a slowdown in China's economy. "U.S. dynamics are far less important to us than what's happening in China," said Francois Conradie, head of research at NKC African Economics, a South African subsidiary of Oxford Economics based in Cape Town. "The biggest risk for us is Chinese demand slowing down sharply." FILE - U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in Washington, Aug. 5, 2014. During his presidency, Barack Obama made it a priority to try and narrow the trade gap between the U.S. and China. In 2012, he launched the Doing Business in Africa Campaign to help make the U.S. Government's trade resources more easily available to the U.S. private sector, and African public and private partners. In September 2016, he hosted the U.S. Africa Business Forum in New York where he announced $9 billion in private trade and investment with Africa. He said U.S. foreign direct investment in African countries rose by 70 percent during his time in office. "I think the key to his legacy is that he has brought trade and investment to the forefront of the U.S.-Africa policy agenda," said Witney Schneidman, senior international adviser for Africa at Covington...

East African Community (EAC) partner states will be legally obliged to collectively promote participation of women and men in regional trade and sustainable economic growth, while considering gender dimensions to personal safety in cross border trade once a new Bill is passed this month. The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is sitting in Kampala, Uganda to, among others; consider the EAC Gender Equality and Development Bill, 2016, which makes provision for gender equality, protection and development in many aspects of the EAC’s integration agenda. The draft seen by The New Times partly indicates that in the process of engendering trade, countries shall: support national and regional associations of women in business; address gender and non-tariff trade barriers; and ensure gender analysis in diagnostic trade integration studies and other trade impact assessments. Francine Uwera Havugimana, second vice chairperson at the Private Sector Federation (PSF), in Kigali, is concerned by how the culture myth harming women will be deflated. “As we all know that women are starting freshly, my opinion would be to set a proper policy supporting women in this long and hard journey in order to avoid disappointment,” Havugimana told The New Times on Monday. “For example, putting in place a strong policy that is well regulated where by 30% is applied for gender equality as minimum share in procurement, loan in big project, or joint venture with government in big projects for development. I think this will be the only way to build this trust among women and in...

Full completion of the Malaba border post is set for April, financiers have said, raising hope for faster clearance of goods and passenger between Kenya and Uganda. The one-stop border post has been functioning with sub optimal infrastructure since its commissioning last June. Delays in completion of the project have been occasioned by end World Bank funding in September, at a time when infrastructure for the Sh533 million project were not fully concluded. The World Bank funding was limited in time. Variations to the contract were also left without funding. Trademark East Africa (TMA) injected additional funds into the project to complete the outstanding works and variations bringing the final contract sum to Sh632 million, excluding claims. “Malaba last bits and pieces of infrastructure will be completed by March /April this year on the Kenya side while the access road to the new bridge from the Uganda side will be completed in April 2017,” said Sjoerd Visser, TMA one-stop border posts director. He said the developments would allow the use of the new dual carriage weigh bridge and separate entry as well as exit roads into Kenya and Uganda. Current tedious clearance procedures at both sides often lead to delays and congestion at the border point. To date, five one-stop border posts have been completed in East Africa including Busia, Holili Taveta, Mutukula (Uganda/Tanzania) Kagitumba Mirama Hills (Rwanda/ Uganda) and Kobero Kabanga (Burundi/Tanzania). The completed border posts are part of the 15 initiated by the East African Community (EAC) One-Stop-Border-Posts...

China's massive export engine sputtered for the second year in a row in 2016, with shipments falling in the face of persistently weak global demand and officials voicing fears of a trade war with the United States that is clouding the outlook for 2017. In one week, China's leaders will see if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on a campaign pledge to brand Beijing a currency manipulator on his first day in office, and starts to follow up on a threat to slap high tariffs on Chinese goods. Even if the Trump administration takes no concrete action immediately, analysts say the specter of deteriorating U.S.-China trade and political ties is likely to weigh on the confidence of exporters and investors worldwide. The world's largest trading nation posted gloomy data on Friday, with 2016 exports falling 7.7 percent and imports down 5.5 percent. The export drop was the second annual decline in a row and the worst since the depths of the global crisis in 2009. It will be tough for foreign trade to improve this year, especially if the inauguration of Trump and other major political changes limit the growth of China's exports due to greater protectionist measures, the country's customs agency said on Friday. "The trend of anti-globalization is becoming increasingly evident, and China is the biggest victim of this trend," customs spokesman Huang Songping told reporters. "We will pay close attention to foreign trade policy after Trump is inaugurated president,” Huang said. Trump will be sworn in on...

  Last week’s arrival of the first batch of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) locomotives has done little to quell public debate on whether Kenya really got value for money. The jury is also still out on the number of hours it will take to shuttle between Nairobi and Mombasa, with opinion divided on the maximum speed of both the passenger and freight trains. While Ethiopia’s electric train attracted much fanfare, Kenya’s diesel engine locomotives were welcomed last Monday with mockery, likening them to century-old trains. A random search online shows that the Dongfeng 11 (DF11) model was produced between 1992 and 2005, with a total of 459 units having been made.Transport experts say train journeys are nothing new in Kenya, with East Africa Shuttles and safaris putting the number of travellers who have travelled between Nairobi and Mombasa in the past 10 years at more than 2,000. However, the journey usually takes 17 hours over the narrow gauge railway, the only consolation being the a relaxed view through the scenic Tsavo National park. ALSO READ: It's all systems go as Mombasa port gears up for SGR locomotives arrival The arrival of the Dongfeng 11 (DF11) diesel locomotives has created a buzz with the expectation that they will halve the time it takes to travel by road - which is the most preferred means of transport for many Kenyans - to four hours, an immense improvement on the 17 hours by rail by any standard. Not everybody, however, is optimistic...

IN SUMMARY Last year, EAC Council of Ministers did not formulate any proposals to be adopted. Kenya is now banking on the Council of Ministers who will convene in a fortnight to persuade its regional partners to finalise discussions on the ratification of the EPA by the February 2 deadline. The East African Community Heads of State Summit, which was to be held in the first week of this month, has been pushed to next month, after the regional ministers of trade and East African affairs failed to agree on some of the issues to be ratified, top among them being the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. This has caused anxiety in Kenya, which is now banking on the EAC Council of Ministers who will convene in a fortnight to persuade its regional partners to finalise discussions on the ratification of the EPA by the February 2 deadline. “The ministers have been having back-and-forth discussions over these issues since November. Had the ministers agreed on the issues, then we would have seen a Heads of State Summit later this month, at which the EPA signing would have been timely because of the European Union deadline,” a source said. “However, this wasn’t the case, and the Ministers will now meet in the week of January 23.” East African Community Affairs Principal Secretary Betty Maina confirmed that the summit will take place in February, because the council did not finish its business last year and has therefore not formulated...

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....