Holding capacity for Nairobi’s Inland Container Depot is set to be increased from 180,000 to 450,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUS) by May 1, the transport ministry has announced. Transport Secretary James Macharia said the adjustment will start upon completion of the ongoing construction. So far, the Kenya Ports Authority has acquired and installed 12 high-capacity cranes that can handle four export and four import Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) cargo trains daily. Each train has a total tonnage capacity of 4,000. “Efficiency at the Nairobi ICD facility will reduce freight charges which will lower prices of basic commodities for the mwananchi,” he said. Mr Macharia said the facility with a capacity to handle 450,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (containers) will provide one-stop shop services for exporters and importers thereby easing costs incurred for goods transported to Mombasa by road and those from Mombasa which usually takes an average of three days. But with the new high speed Standard Gauge Railway facility, a cargo locomotive moving at 80 kilometres per hour will take an average of eight hours, equivalent to 216 trucks that take three days to cover the 472 kilometre journey. In an interview, Kenya Railways Chief Executive Atanas Maina said the ICD would operate on a 24hour basis with the facility run on a modern information technology platform where importers and exporters will seamlessly clear cargo. “We anticipate a situation where importers will be able to clear goods on the same day from our ICD Nairobi depot to their go-downs...

The East African Community (EAC) is set to issue a common travel passport. The move was announced following a just-concluded meeting of EAC Council of Ministers in Arusha, Tanzania. According to Tanzania Daily News, member countries of the EAC have been directed to start issuing the new machine-readable common passport by January 31, 2018. The common passport, which had previously been slated to begin in April 2017, had to be rescheduled and shifted by one year to allow all countries to meet a uniform deadline. An official report from the 35th EAC Council of Ministers meeting revealed that Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda were ready to commence the common passport regime; however, Tanzania and South Sudan could only realistically commence issuance of the new passport by 2018. A resolution reached at the 17th ordinary summit of the EAC Heads of State directed all member nations to gradually phase out the current national passports between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2018. When launched, the new common passport is expected to guarantee citizens of the six-member nation regional body seamless cross border travel for business, pleasure, and learning. It will also create a common market for goods and services and boost the free movement of people within the regional bloc. The new e-passport will have diplomatic, service as well as standard categories. Regular passports will be valid for up 10 years while diplomatic passports will be valid according to the term of service. The passports will come with a chip that stores...

The East African Community (EAC) is to rebrand itself, a new development that will see changes in the EAC emblem and symbols. This will affect the flag, the emblem and the EAC theme colours, according to a press release issued by the Principal Public Relations Officer Ministry of East African Community Affairs, Uganda, Cris Magoba. “The EAC Brand Architecture Strategy proposes several initiatives that include re-designing a new EAC logo and flag, developing a common unique identifier for all organs and institutions; developing one primary (main) EAC corporate colour and one secondary colour; and developing a single visual identity emblem for the Community,” he said. He explained that the EAC Brand Architecture Strategy comes in the wake of the admission of the Republic of South Sudan and the possibility of the future expansion of the Community in line with Article 3 of the Treaty establishing the EAC. Article 3, Clause 2 of the Treaty provides that: 'The Partner states may, upon such terms and in such manner as they may determine, together  negotiate  with  any  foreign  country  the  granting  of  membership  to,  or association of that country with, the Community or its participation in any of the activities of the Community'. Currently the emblem features a map of Lake Victoria with the partner states Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda around it. This is surrounded by an industrial wheel with a leave arch on either side with the letters 'EAC' at the top. At the bottom of the emblem is...

Reports that Kenya's exports within the East African Community bloc and specifically to Uganda have dropped are cause for worry. Some of Kenya's exports in the region include petroleum products, fish, cement, sisal and pyrethrum. For long, Uganda has been Kenya's biggest export market, bringing in Sh68.5 billion and Sh62 billion in 2015 and 20016 respectively. Achieving an economy of scale was therefore easy compared to exporting locally produced elsewhere. Arguably, Kenya has the biggest economy in the region that, by all means, must be sustained. Losing the grip that we as a country have had in the region will impact negatively on the economy. This raises the fundamental question that if we can't win in the region, how can we win abroad where, because of the many options and the efficient and cheaper models of production make competition is fierce? The findings of the 2016 Economic Survey that show Kenya's export value to the East African Community region dropped by 4 per cent are a pointer to what needs to be done. An export regime that largely relies on raw material is not sustainable in the long term. There have been steps to ensure value addition becomes an integral part of our export promotion. Source: Standard Media

The East African Community (EAC) says rapid population growth is putting the region’s economies and environments under pressure. Jesca Eriyo, the deputy secretary-general of the EAC, says poverty levels will increase in East African nations if their populations continue to grow at their current rate. She suggests countries in the region do more to control the number of children being born to prevent the negative impact of human habitation on its member states. ‘Poverty levels will grow’ Speaking at the Sectoral Council of Ministers meeting for Lake Victoria Basin Council, Ms Eriyo warned that poverty will increase in East African nations if they fail to control their birth rates more effectively. “If we don’t control the number of children we are giving birth to, poverty levels will grow. This requires re-alignment of policies, processes and systems and sharing of resources for coordinated actions,” she said. The latest United Nations World Population Prospect shows that Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are among the world’s 33 countries expected to see their populations increase five-fold, or more, by 2100. Rapid population growth in the region is putting pressure on countries’ budgets and environment. In a previous UN report, it was estimated that 60 percent of pollution related deaths are due to contaminated water or poor hygiene, 40 per cent due to indoor air pollution and one per cent due to outdoor air pollution. Human impact on EAC countries Rapid population growth combined with changing habitations patterns, overgrazing, bio piracy, deforestation, pollution and the unsustainable exploitation of natural...

NAIROBI, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese engagement is helping create an infrastructure boom across Africa, giving rise to a motley of mega-projects that create jobs and boost economic growth while cushioning an economic slowdown the region faces. In its latest World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast the sub-Saharan Africa's economy will only grow 2.6 percent in 2017, well below its global growth forecast of 3.5 percent. The subdued growth outlook for the region is largely because of ugly data registered in the region's two biggest economies that account for about half of regional output. The report said in 2016 growth in South Africa grew only 0.3 percent while the Nigerian economy contracted 1.5 percent amid low international oil and commodity prices. The IMF predicted only a modest 0.8-percent growth for both countries this year. However, behind the seemingly bleak outlook, there is a silver lining in terms of the diversity in some other African countries keen to invest heavily in infrastructure projects to boost growth, often with China's involvement. Thanks to a more diversified economic structure and infrastructure investment binge, East Africa's largest economy Kenya has maintained a growth rate of around 6 percent. In Kenya, a standard-gauge railway (SGR) stretching about 480 km and linking its capital Nairobi with Mombasa port is changing the country's landscape with brightly-colored trains and shiny modern stations. The project, due to be launched in less than two months, is constructed by a Chinese firm and sources most of...

That’s the first part, electronically guarded and just unique as travel document go and that it will be good to go against shady deals by all sorts of people with ill-intentions visiting upon the existing passports – which, we’re told, can be manufactured from backyard printhouses. The second part is that it will also turn up roses for the public which is now only too familiar with everything electronic; so this new document will provide them, as travellers, with benefits such as use of automated border clearance or ‘E-gates’, automated issuance of boarding passes and faster travel arrangements with airlines: It couldn’t get easier, so the promise goes, purely at the tech level. At the practical human element, the importance of this new document will be important given the fact EAC bloc itself is a regional intergovernmental organisation that incorporates the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and our country, after a Treaty they acceded to in 1999. Not to beg the obvious, this unique document will undoubtedly usher in many other benefits within the bloc in terms of regional co-operation and integration and ‘empower’ the holder to enjoy doing business, research and enjoy peace of mind, secure in the knowledge that security of residence is assured wherever they may be, in other words, at home while one is away from home. Travellers within the community with the document should realise that it will boost their free movement across the East African region and facilitate implementation of the...

Written by leading experts including the president of the East African Community Court of Justice (EACJ), national judges, academics and law practitioners; East African Community Law discusses the nature of EAC law, free movement and competition law as well as the reception of EAC law in partner states. Uniquely, the book also provides a systematic comparison with EU law and more widely, lessons learned from the EU experience. East African Community Law is published by Brill Nijhoff and co-edited by a team of EAC and EU experts, including Tom Ottervanger (Of Counsel at Allen & Overy, Professor of European Law at Leiden University, deputy-Justice at the Court of Appeal at the Hague and director of the Leiden Center for the Comparative Study of EAC law) as well as the president and founding registrar of the EACJ and Dr Cuyvers of Leiden University. The support of the European Union, Leiden University and Allen & Overy has made it possible to publish this book online so it is available free of charge for all those who are interested (Open Access). Allen & Overy’s Tom Ottervanger comments “The role of the law and lawyers is crucial to the process of integration, as effective integration requires some form of supranational legal system. Challenges that the EU has faced (and is still facing) such as safeguarding the quality of EU law, monitoring compliance and making EU law binding and enforceable – these are also challenges facing the EAC. We hope that this book will be...

The East African Community (EAC) is now one of the regions with world’s fastest growing population exacerbating problems of ill health, poverty, environmental degradation, unemployment and declining agricultural productivity. The latest United Nation’s World Population Prospects report — which has data covering up to 2015 — indicates that Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are among the 33 countries whose population is projected to increase at least five-fold by 2100. The EAC has a population of about 150 million people with land area of 1.82 million square kilometres and a combined gross domestic product of Sh7.4 trillion ($74.5 billion). Africa’s population is currently estimated to be 1.4 billion while the world’s is at seven billion. In the region, about 60 per cent of pollution related deaths are due to contaminated water or poor hygiene, 40 per cent due to indoor air pollution and one per cent due to outdoor air pollution, according to another UN World Population Prospects Report released four years earlier. The bloc — comprising Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania — is endowed with many resources and income earners majorly from agriculture and livestock production, fisheries, mining, wildlife and tourism. Rapid population growth has strained the countries’ budgets and ability to cater for the basic human rights including nutrition, health services, clean water and environment. “Despite potentially grave consequences, demographic changes usually do not take centre stage in many macroeconomic policy discussions or debates,” states a 2014 World Bank report dubbed ‘Impact of Demographic Changes on Inflation and the...

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with regional trade facilitator TradeMark Africa (TMA) to improve cross border trade and enhance trade links between the country and East Africa Community (EAC) member states. The government of the Netherlands has committed $6.7 million to kick-start the projects. TMA will invest in projects involving already available resources such as water transport, simplifying trade processes through training and facilitating adoption of ICT around Eastern DRC. They will comprise dredging and rehabilitation of Kalundu Port on Lake Tanganyika; capacity building and implementation of Integrated Border Management Systems on the border crossings in Rusizi between Rwanda and Bukavu; rehalibitation of the Ports of Kasenyi on the DRC side and Ntoroko in Uganda; as well as infrastructure work at the border crossing at Goli, Uganda and Mahagi, DRC. “Trade is a way to reduce conflict and unemployment. The agreement will contribute to the training of cross border traders in trade issues, exporting and tapping into regional markets. This will especially benefit our youth,” Prof. Nehemie Wilondja, DRC Directuer du Cabinet noted. TMA Director General David Stanton said they are seeking to replicate the success of similar initiatives between EAC governments and businesses to drive down the costs of trade along the key transport corridors, which include the border with DRC, in the country. The institution has facilitated projects along the Northern Corridor from Mombasa Port, Kenya linking Uganda, Rwanda, DRC and South Sudan; and the Central Corridor connecting Dar es...