The French Ambassador to Kenya, Mr Remi Marechaux, last month warned that his country would continue to issue travel advisories when required and would not rely on local security assurances. France, he said, would carry out its own assessment of the security situation and act accordingly.   This is the new reality that tourism industry players and the Government will have to grapple with, as they come to terms with the dwindling number of visitors. Tourism industry players have to accept that  global terrorism has changed the rules of the game. It is  no longer tenable to predicate the development of a region on an industry whose success is determined by events in countries such as Somalia. As much as Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala and his team are working overnight to bring back the industry to its former glory, the country must come to grips with the fact that it would take very little to send all their hard-won gains up in smoke. Kenya’s tourism industry appears to suffer greater damage than other countries  every time terrorists strike. It is as though tourists from the West seize on such attacks to cancel their bookings. In this light, the introduction of new tourist packages, though welcome, may not come soon enough. The new products would may be enough to attract visitors in the wake of continued travel advisories that have almost become an industry staple. This means governors of counties in the former Coast Province would be well advised to...

United Nations has today urged corporates to use their business chain to push for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals to accelerate their attainment. Speaking in Nairobi the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary General Dr Mukhisa Kituyi noted that The SDGs present an opportunity for business-led solutions and technologies to be developed and implemented to address the world’s biggest sustainable development challenges. “It is not possible to have a strong, functioning business in a world of increasing inequality, poverty and climate change. Business has the unique opportunity to embrace the SDG agenda and recognize it as a driver of business strategies, innovation and investment decisions,” he said. Dr. Kituyi was speaking during an SDG forum organized by Safaricom where the company launched its own SDG integration campaign. According to the Global Climate Change Report of 2015, SDG’s offer the greatest economic opportunity of a lifetime with an estimated investment of $2-3 trillion a year. It further states that businesses that will, for instance, actively engage in the goal on climate action will enjoy at least 18 percent higher returns on investment. Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said the company had commenced integration of the SDG’s into its business strategy adding that this would provide a platform for the company to pursue opportunity and innovation and new business opportunities. “We don’t live or operate in isolation. If we contribute to the depletion of our planet, our businesses will suffer the consequences in equal measure,” he said adding that...

 Construction of the Sh327 billion standard gauge railway (SGR) will be completed two months ahead of the official time line, Transport Principal Secretary (PS) Irungu Nyakera has said. This means Kenyans can start enjoying the President Uhuru Kenyatta flagship project from March next year. By May, the civil works for the project was already 80 per cent complete with laying of tracks so far covering distance a of 280 kilometres from Voi to Sultan Hamud. The government has already started the acquisition of locomotives, passenger coaches and wagons for use on the track. Mr Nyakera said 56 locomotives are set to be delivered from China before the end of the year. Of the 33 railway stations under construction, he added, some have already been completed. These include 23 passing stations, eight intermediary stations and two major stations to be built in Mombasa and Nairobi. Mr Nyakera said the government was fast tracking the construction of the inland container depot in Nairobi with the ground breaking ceremony expected to take place in September. Kenya Railways Corporation and Ministry of Transport teams are currently conducting due diligence on the railway operator in China and Australia. John Holland, an Australian firm which is set to operate the line became a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) following an acquisition deal finalised in 2015. “We expect President Kenyatta to officially commission the project on Madaraka Day of 2017, by boarding a train in Mombasa,” he said. Design stage Mr Nyakera said the government...

Customs officials are betting on the efficiency at the Taveta one-stop border post (OSBP) to boost transit cargo and increase cross-border trade. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) border post manager Daniel Nyambaka said the OSBP has already started paying dividend, saying trucks take 30 minutes to cross the border compared to up to five hours previously. Under an OSBP, customs and immigration procedures are undertaken by officials from the bordering countries housed under one roof. Mr Nyambaka said a joint verification of goods, which is also undertaken at the facility, making the process faster as traders no longer have to waste time moving from one post to the other. The OSBP has been operational for a year now. It is expected to boost transit cargo that pass through Mombasa Port to landlocked countries like Burundi and Rwanda, which have in recent years reduced Kenya-bound imports. Passengers who use the border post frequently said clearance was now faster. According to Jah Ramzan, a driver with Tahmeed Bus Company which operates from Mombasa to Dar-es-salaam, whereas they would spend more than five hours waiting for passengers to clear with immigration at both posts, the time has reduced to less than 15 minutes. “Initially we would park the bus at the Tanzania border and clear passengers then come to Kenya where we would repeat the exercise. But with all the officers under one roof, it takes one person about five minutes to clear,” he said. According to a recent report by the East...

Cargo clearance time at the new Taveta-Holili border post has been reduced significantly from eight hours to 15 minutes, improving intra-trade between Kenya and countries along the Central corridor. The Kenya Revenue Authority has attributed the faster service to the newly launched One Stop Border Post. Under the OSBP framework, officials from Kenya and Tanzania are stationed on either side of the two borders, reducing bottlenecks and avoiding duplication of clearance procedures for goods and people. Taveta customs and border control manager Daniel Nyambaka said the reduction in clearance time has increased the inflow of goods into Kenya, mainly cereals from Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania. “Clearing agents had to walk for a long distance from the Tanzanian border to the Kenyan one to clear their goods. After this facility was brought up, it only takes 15 minutes to clear a truck heading to Kenya from Tanzania,” Nyambaka told journalists at the border on Saturday. Project manager Daniel Muturi said the previous process could take up to 33 hours to clear cargo trucks. Clearing of passengers now takes about 10 minutes from five hours. “A joint verification is done at the OSBP thus reducing the time,” Nyambaka said. “The facility will soon get scanners and a dog unit to ensure quick scrutiny of goods and people.” Tourism stakeholders and business people have welcomed the project launched on March 2. It became the first OSBP to be operationalised among the 15 OSBPs being set up regionally, funded by TradeMark Africa. “The initiative...

Partnerships, Unions, Associations and such other groupings (including marriage) which are formed for a common purpose, have key ingredients for success some of which include commitment and perseverance. Even when things do not seem to be working well and when difficulties arise, the option should not be to leave but rather find solutions to deal with the difficulties. In some circumstances, however, this is not an option. The United Kingdom decided by majority vote to leave the European Union (EU) as a sign of disgruntlement regarding a number of difficulties arising from their membership. I will not comment on options that could have been pursued but rather lessons that the EU could learn from the East African Community. While the EU has been around for four decades and has provided experiences that the EAC has learnt from, this time round, the EAC has something to teach the EU. The main issue for UK's departure from the EU was immigration. Their membership to the EU led to large migration of various EU nationals into the UK. It was felt that this was putting a strain on their economy and services such as health including job scarcity for UK citizens. In my research, l found various unofficial statistics regarding numbers of migrants with conservative estimates of about 5 per cent of the population constituting of migrants. Migration on its own should not be a problem because migrants bring benefits to the economy. By their membership to the EU, the UK should have...

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta urged African nations to re-engage with Israel as its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, tours the continent pursuing business deals and support in world forums. In turn, Netanyahu exhorted a group of some 80 Israeli executives in his entourage to explore new business ventures in Kenyatta’s country and help strengthen political alliances in Africa. The Israeli leader later told reporters that part of his Africa strategy is to pressure Palestinians to resume peace negotiations by demonstrating that Israel is breaking out of its political isolation. “Come closer, come and invest in Kenya,” Netanyahu told the Israelis in Nairobi who mixed with hundreds of Kenyan executives at a business forum to explore potential deals. “We have strategic interest, we have national and international interests, but I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if I didn’t think that you would benefit.” As the first Israeli prime minister in 29 years to visit sub-Saharan Africa, Netanyahu said he’s asking for political support from countries that have largely sided with Arab nations on resolutions critical of Israel in the United Nations and African Union. “My goal is to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table for direct talks and prevent them from automatically turning to the international community to gain support to pressure Israel to reach peace on their terms, without negotiations,” Netanyahu, 66, told reporters traveling with him on the four-country tour. ‘Head in Sand’ Kenyatta, 54, made his own trip to Jerusalem in February. He said on...

Regional governments have been urged to invest in capacity building of technocrats involved in international trade negotiations to enhance their skills and ensure they bargain for deals that will benefit citizens. According to Henry Kimera of Consumer Food Education Trust (Uganda), with commercial oil and gas deposits being confirmed in almost all the six East African Community (EAC) countries, government must sharpen negotiation skills of technocrats so that they are able to negotiate better deals to ensure maximum benefit for countries. Kimera added that most regional technocrats negotiate from a point of weakness since they are not well-versed with international trade negotiation and other economic agreements, including oil deals. He was speaking during a two-day regional conference on how EAC can achieve structural transformation and sustainable development that was organised by Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI-Uganda) in Kampala last week. The conference, under the theme “Achieving Structural Transformation in the context of Regional Integration and the EU-EAC EPA: Implications and way forward for the EAC” attracted government officials and the private sector players, as well as East African Legislative Assembly MPs, and academia from across the region. Commenting on the EPAs, Kimera said EAC governments alone cannot guarantee the success of the deals, the reason why other stakeholders should be involved in the negotiation process. “We are the consumers, we work with the citizens, and know what’s best for them and the challenges they face mostly. This is why the signing and the ratification of...

Britain referundum decision to exit the European Union under the so-called Brexit has no long-term consequences on East African Community, Robert Mathu, the executive director of Capital Market Authority in Rwanda, has said. Before and after the voting, the Pound Sterling continued to lose value compared to the last 30 years. The capital markets in UK also incurred losses and have lost value that has made the future of EU uncertain thus the departure of the UK. Mathu said some of the effects might reach the regions that have an economic relation with Britain and the British investment. “Brexit is a problem for the whole world since the reason as to why most countries come together for economic purposes, is to allow investment and businesses to freely operate in the member countries,” he said. Mathu and other analysists worldwide, confirm that the first worry of the Brexit is capitalist countries will spread the ideas of exit making globalisation a major priority while other countries want to put extra security on the immigrants and control the movement. “It will affect the globalisation and the citizens and investors who have been travelling to the UK will encounter problems. Normally, you would find people traveling to UK and other countries with ease,” Mathu said. He added that Brexit will not affect the payment of the $400 million that Rwanda got on the Eurobond market since it got the loan in Dollar currency and not a Pound currency. EAC remains uncertain Mathu said the...

The reduction of data roaming rates by the Northern Corridor countries will help spur trade, the private sector players have said. Telecom firms operating in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, and South Sudan implemented a directive by the Heads of State to cut the data roaming rates by July 1 under the One Area Network initiative. The development, where data roaming rates have been cut by up to 80 per cent, means that Rwandans will roam in Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya at much lower charges, local telecom firms have said. Tigo subscribers and roaming visitors on the Tigo network are now browsing at Rwf90/MB down from Rwf440 previously, a development private sector players say will ease business between member states and deepen integration. The rates will apply when the telecom’s subscribers are visiting Uganda or Kenya. Tigo’s local data tariff is Rwf51/MB, while an SMS from Rwanda to Uganda, Kenya or South Sudan is now at Rwf45 per from Rwf75. Voice calls to Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan will cost Rwf68, Rwf60, and 60, down from Rwf128, Rwf256 and Rwf245 respectively. MTN customers roaming in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan will now browse at Rwf88/MB under a new tariff, down from Rwf408, Teta Mpyisi, the telecom firm’s senior manager for brand and sponsorship, said over the weekend. The Northern Corridor Heads of State summit held in Kampala, Uganda last year directed telecom operators and regulators to fast-track reduction of data charges and review taxes downward, setting July 1 as the implementation...