A ship maker has unveiled Kenya’s first locally built barge, a flat bottomed sea vessel. The vessel will be deployed for transportation of heavy machinery and marine cargo along the East African coast. Southern Engineering Company (Seco) said the barge has the capacity of 2,500 dead weight tonnage equivalent to 150 truckloads. An official from the firm said the vessel will be deployed for use in construction of Lamu Port and other offshore projects along the West of Indian Ocean and inland water bodies like Lake Turkana. Currently, marine transport firms are positioning themselves for major projects such as the Lamu Port which is underway. Seco’s Director in charge of Administration John Msafari said the vessel was built by 80 Kenyan skilled manpower and inspected by qualified inspectors from outside the country. He said the vessel built in a record six months using marine grade steel cost Sh180 million. Mr Msafari said the vessel can also benefit local seafarers who have on several occasions complained of lack of ships for training. “This vessel is the first to be designed and built in Kenya under internationally recognised classification standards. It meets the Indian Register of Shipping or IRCLASS,” said Seco Technical Manager Jayesh Mehta. Mr Mehta said the vessel has the capacity to carry various aggregated project cargo, heavy vehicles, trucks and cranes and can access areas that are inaccessible to normal ships. Msafari said construction of the vessel marks a major milestone in Kenya and Mombasa’s quest to attain its...

NAIROBI (HAN) July 23.2016. Public Diplomacy & Regional Security News. Tanzania’s concern early this month over the impact of Brexit on the East African Community has now turned into an opportunity for leaders and trade negotiation experts to demand a review of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the regional bloc and the European Union that was due for signing next month. The experts want the aspect of liberalisation in the EAC-EU EPA renegotiated, with open-ended time because the agreement currently contains a number of provisions that are prejudicial and bound to constrain EAC’s development. They also want a review of the nomenclature for classification of countries such as Kenya — the only developing country in the EAC — whose exports to EU, unlike those from least developed countries, will face a stringent entry regime if the EPA is not signed. The EPA is a trade and development deal that has been under negotiation between the EU and countries in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific since 2002 — it was to succeed the 2000 Cotonou Agreement. The 2007 Framework Economic Partnership Agreement would pave the way for a free trade area between the EU and these regions. Nathan Irumba, chief executive director of regional trade negotiations institute Seatini Uganda, said the EAC might be hounded into signing because of the unique situation Kenya finds itself in, yet there are options around it. “If the negotiations are between blocs, why doesn’t the EU treat EAC as an lesser developed country (LDC)?” asks Mr...

The launch of the Pan-African passport was one of the most memorable milestones at the just-ended 27th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) in Kigali, Rwanda. The African passport will be the third for citizens in the East African Community after the national and the East African passport. Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the chairperson of the AU Commission, handed two representational African passports to President Paul Kagame, and to the head of the AU, President Idriss Deby of Chad. "At the summit in January 2016 this year, you decided that we must launch the African passport. We are making this start with our heads of state and government, foreign ministers, the leadership of the regional economic communities (RECs) and the leadership of the representatives of the AU executive councils and organs," she said in her opening remarks. Dlamini-Zuma also urged heads of state to create conducive conditions for member states to issue the passport to their citizens, "within their national policies, as and when they are ready." The passport seeks to create advantageous visa-regimes across the continent and later on create a pathway for a visa-free Africa, under the AU agenda of the "Africa We Want." She explained that after sharing aspirations of African citizens, the commission adopted Agenda 2063, which is a 50-year framework towards a continent that is integrated, peaceful and prosperous, driven by its own citizens and playing a dynamic role in the world. "The Africa we have today is full of hope, possibility and optimism, but...

A few days ago, Tanzania’s Trade minister Charles Mwijage announced that his country would not be signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. He argued that the EPA would expose his country to harsh economic conditions in post-Brexit Europe. This followed an earlier announcement by Dr Aziz Mlima, Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary to the East African Community, that his country would not sign the EPA. This came as a shocker to Kenya, especially when Uganda immediately followed suit in rejecting the EPA. As if reading from the same script, Uganda’s and Tanzania’s decision left many wondering if there is more to this. Would this also mean the end of the EAC? According to WTO rules, countries that form an economic bloc like the EAC cannot make individual agreements with another bloc such as the EU. This generally means that the decision by Tanzania and Uganda has put paid to Kenya’s efforts and those of Rwanda and Burundi to sign the EPA with the EU. This means that Kenya’s horticultural sector may be adversely exposed if it will not enjoy preferential (duty free and quota free) access to the EU, the world’s largest single market. OBJECTIONS TO THE EPA There are many people who have objected to the EPAs with Europe, in fact quite a number of NGOs have been active in trying to dissuade governments from signing them, citing the lopsided nature of the agreement. They also say that the EPAs may curtail the development options available to...

Negotiators applauded today after reaching an agreement on the Nairobi consensus, the Maafikiano, setting UNCTAD’s work programme for the next four years after long discussions including two sleepless nights. Several clauses that are set to define the Nairobi outcome had remained unresolved as different factions fought to have their way in the final document. The ministers were split in factions, including the JUSCAN (Japan US and Canada), and the European Union (EU) which are aligned to former Soviet Group D countries waiting to join the EU against the Group of 77 comprising of 134 developing countries backed by China. Final agreement came at 10:20 a.m. following long days of negotiations in which negotiators had used caffeine pills, candies, and soft drinks to keep themselves alert while scrutinizing the draft documents being projected onto screens in an underground room. “I’m delighted that our 194 member states have been able to reach this consensus, giving a central role to UNCTAD in delivering the sustainable development goals,” UNCTAD Secretary-General, Mukhisa Kituyi, said. “With this document, we can get on with the business of cutting edge analysis, building political consensus, and providing the necessary technical assistance that will make globalization and trade work for billions of people in the global south,” he said. UNCTAD14 President, Amina Mohamed, expressed delight while negotiators laughed when the agreement was finally reached. “As the President of this conference, I cannot begin to tell you how I feel right now,” she told negotiators sitting in the tightly packed room at...

Members of the European Parliament are rooting for the extension the October deadline to sign the comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between East African Community (EAC) and the EU. The MPs said the move is meant to salvage Kenya after Tanzania and Burundi stood in the way to the realisation of the deal set to give relief from heavy taxes for the country's exports to the EU.Tanzania has refused to sign the agreement while Burundi is at the verge of being sanctioned by the European Union following political instability in the country.EU chair of a joint delegation of Trade and Development Committee Bernd Lange attending the 14th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Nairobi said Kenya would be the biggest casualty should the two scenarios persist and the EPA is not signed hence the need to save the situation"Our first proposal is to have the October 1st deadline extended to allow for more time and see whether Tanzania will agree to sign or if Burundi will improve her democratic situation and evade sanction from the European Union. "If none of these happen then I expect that Kenya will apply for the GSP plus and when it is received then we can begin the market access regulations and save Kenya," Mr Lange said.The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) Plus status will allow Kenya to continue exporting at the current preference terms even if the two countries fail to sort out their issues standing in between the region and a...

I had read and heard about the One Stop Border Post from East Africanists, but was frustrated because no one was putting out a photograph or graphic illustration of how it works. So I decided to check it out, driving from Kisumu into Uganda through the Busia border point. There were surprises aplenty. Something radical is happening with this one-stop thing. When you are entering Uganda from Kenya, you go to a single immigration hall. At one window, a Kenyan immigration official stamps your travel document to log your exit. And you step right over to the next window, hand over your passport and a Ugandan official stamps your entry. If you are a law-abiding citizen, you are through in about two to three minutes. You walk through a short corridor, and you are in Uganda. On the return leg, you head to the opposite immigration complex, and the process happens in reverse. The same thing happens for Customs clearance. This exercise used to take travellers at least 30 minutes, and sometimes clearing your car could run into an hour! If you don’t have a passport, you also get an interstate pass, which is issued simultaneous by Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. On average, the one-stop posts have cut the time travellers spend at the border by at least 90 per cent. This is truly remarkable, because it was all but impossible to think of an African government acting alone or collectively with others achieving those levels of efficiency. But politically,...

Kenya is seeking to offset trade imbalance with South Africa by focusing on services where the East African country has a comparative advantage. Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed on Tuesday met South Africa's minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies to discuss a framework for engagement before the end of the year. According to the Export Promotion Council, Kenya's imports from South Africa have increased from $287.7 million in 2003 to $ 477.4 million in 2007, a rise of about 66 per cent while exports have been decreasing from $51 million in 2004. This means that the share of Kenya's total exports in the South Africa's global imports has remained below one per cent. During bilateral talks with Mr Davies, Mr Mohamed agreed to hold match making meetings between business delegations from Kenya and South Africa during a state visit later in the year. Mr Davies said South Africa was keen on building trade in services with its African counterparts which it has not explored. "We want to have measurable and tangible progress because countries meet sign frameworks but have very little follow-up activity," he said. The South African minister said the country had come up with Trade Investment African arm to encourage the countries companies to expand trade into the continent. Kenya is also seeking access into the South African market for mainly tea and avocado exports. Mr Davies said this could happen if the countries speed up implementation of the tripartite free trade agreement that would bring together the...

The 14th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will today come to an end in Nairobi, Kenya. It is one of the most important events for the global investment community, providing an opportunity and platform to interact trade-wise. The conference brings together Heads of State and Government, ministers and other prominent players from the business world, civil society and academia to tackle global trade and economic development challenges. Among the key issues the meeting tackled is the need to strengthen the evolution and management of globalisation, interdependence of trade, finance, investment and technology, and ways of advancing growth and development prospects, especially for developing countries. One feature during this high-level trade conference is calling off the scheduled signing of Economic Partnership Agreement between East African Community (EAC) and European Union (EU). Members of the EAC were split down the middle, with Uganda reportedly joining Tanzania in pulling out of the pact that would have guaranteed continued access to the European Union market without paying duty. Of course, this arises from the recent Brexit. It stood out that regional trade agreements are too difficult to negotiate, may be for defensive reasons, fear of individual interest being locked out or protection of existing preferential agreements in other areas. Such reservations may ultimately slow down the higher ambitions and results sought by the crucial integration agenda. Trade gains from regional integration are one of the key economic objectives behind the creation of any trading bloc. Turns out that member states’ decision...

A plan to ease congestion at the Mombasa Port has run into a storm over the cost of items put out for auction. Bidders complained that the items were too expensive as most of them returned home empty handed. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) plans to sell several items, including vehicles, after owners failed to collect their containers. According to KRA, most of the overstayed cargo could have been imported by cartels involved in tax evasion and diversion of transit cargo. This came as it emerged that the biggest chunk of the cargo already auctioned and others awaiting the fall of the hammer, belong to Kenyan and Ugandan importers. According to KRA, it was not normal for businessmen to import goods and then refuse to claim them. About 70 per cent of the goods listed for auction are said to be owned by Kenyan importers while 15 per cent belong to Ugandans and the rest belong to South Sudanese and Rwandans. Hundreds of prospective bidders who had converged at the Mombasa Port Custom Warehouse said the prices were out of reach for them. Mr Stephen Kyalo, a Mombasa-based businessman, said he is frustrated after he was unable to get the items he wanted to buy. "I have spent the last two days running up and down viewing the commodities coming up for sale but prices have put me off. I had even borrowed money to purchase the goods but very expensive," he said. Another trader, Mr Sammy Masila, said KRA...