The French global energy company Total has reaffirmed its commitment to invest in a crude oil pipeline from Uganda to the Tanzanian port of Tanga, saying it remains more cost-effective than pursuing a Kenyan route instead. According to Total E & P Uganda general manager Adewale Fayemi, all available options have been evaluated carefully and the conclusion - as far as Total is concerned - is that the Tanga route would still be cheaper and more convenient in the long run. "As a company, our position remains that we are going through Tanga…I understand there are issues being discussed but our position remains the same," Fayemi told an East African oil and gas sector conference taking place in Dar es Salaam yesterday. He said Total, the biggest financier of the 1,400-kilometre pipeline project worth over $4 billion, has done enough studies to compare the various possible routes and come to a definite conclusion about which was best. The main possible routes considered were from Uganda’s Lake Albert, through northern Kenya to the port of Lamu, or south through Tanzania to Tanga. The Lamu route would cost $4.2bn and the Tanga route $4.7bn, according to estimates. But the studies done so far have also noted that the Lamu route would expose the pipeline as an obvious target for sabotage by the Somali-based Al-Shabaab terrorist organization, thereby lowering its safety and security rating considerably. Total is partnering with the UK-based Tullow Oil and China National Offshore Oil companies to extract an estimated...

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...

Kenya signed a multi-billion dollar agreement with China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) to extend the country's rail network, adding to a swathe of infrastructure deals in Africa won by Chinese firms. The first phase of a cross-country rail project in East Africa's largest economy, and thence to other countries in the region, is expected to link the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to Nairobi from mid-2017. In December the government, seeking to reduce transport costs and boost trade, secured a $1.5 billion loan -- also from China -- to extend the track from the capital to the Rift Valley town of Naivasha. Wednesday's deal with CCCC, worth 549 billion shillings ($5.42 billion), is to extend the line from Naivasha to the town of Malaba on the Ugandan border, said Wilson Nyakera, principal secretary in Kenya's transport ministry. China has replaced the U.S. and Europe as the main trading partner for many African countries and has bankrolled projects from infrastructure to energy as part of its growing commercial and diplomatic clout on a continent with some of the fastest-growing economies. The government expected to conclude a financing agreement for the Naivasha-Malaba leg in the next six months, Nyakera said. "Even as we sign the commercial contract for the second phase we are confident that we will be able to deliver the project," Transport Minister James Macharia was quoted as saying in a Kenya Railways statement. Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan have ratified a plan for a railway connecting Mombasa to...

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....

ON a continent where nearly 90% of international trade happens by sea, several African ports are in the race to be their respective regional shipping hubs - and for one ambitious city – Kigali – the ambition to be a logistics hub isn’t the preserve of coastal ports. Lack of infrastructure and long ship waiting times continue to hamper productivity for the African maritime sector, but a wave of new investments look set to drive growth over the medium term, according to a new report from research consultancy SeaIntel. The upgrades come as the global economy slowdown sends jitters through the shipping industry. Overall confidence levels in the shipping industry fell to a record low in the three months to February 2016, according to the latest Shipping Confidence Survey from shipping adviser Moore Stephens. Of particular concern was the shrinking dry bulk market as less cargo is transported across regions. That has now led to an overcapacity problem, which is expected to lead to “price-cutting and eventually to financial difficulties for the weakest, the least well-prepared, or sometimes simply the unluckiest,” said Richard Greiner, Moore Stephens Partner, Shipping Industry Group. “Shipping has had its share of bankruptcies, foreclosures and restructurings during the past few years, and it is likely that we will see more over the coming months, with negotiations doubtless enlivened by the fact that shipping’s purse-strings today are often controlled by an intriguing mix of private equity and traditional shipping finance,” he added. Ramping up Still, Africa is...

The state-owned rail giant China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) has signed a major agreement to build a $1.5bn section of standard gauge railway linking Kenya to landlocked neighbours Uganda and Rwanda. Approved by the Kenyan government, the deal sees CCCC building a 349-km railway between Navaisha, north of the capital Nairobi, northwest to Malaba on the border with Uganda. The section is part of a bigger plan to link the border town of Malaba through Nairobi to Kenya’s main port of Mombasa. Another Chinese company, China Road and Bridge Corporation, began building the link between Mombasa and Nairobi in December 2014. The even grander scheme is eventually to build a standard gauge rail link from Malaba over the top of Lake Victoria to Kampala in Uganda and onwards to Kigali in Rwanda, giving these countries access to Mombasa port, although Uganda and Rwanda will be responsible for their sections of the railway. The new network is hoped to speed the flow of people and goods between the countries. Malaba has been a bottleneck between Kenya and Uganda, with trucks having to queue for days to cross (pictured) before a new checkpoint opened this year. Four contracts signed with CCCC cover two sections of the Naivasha-Malaba line, plus the modernisation of Kisumu Port on Lake Victoria and the expansion of the Inland Container Depot at Embakasi in Nairobi, local media reported. The deal also secures a loan for the Kenyan Government to finance the building of the Navaisha-Nairobi section, and construction...

Africa could see the emergence of a number of new bunkering hot spots, as ports across the continent vie to become new regional logistics hubs. "A variety of challenges exist, from structural congestion in African ports located in conurbations with limited road and rail infrastructure, to poor customs procedures, security concerns, poor dredging programmes, and industrial actions," said Victor Shieh, SeaIntel's Editor-in-Chief. In East Africa, Kenya and Tanzania are said to be in competition to become the region's major port, with Kenya aiming to upgrade its Mombasa port in order to improve efficiency, and Tanzania having begun construction of port in Bagamoyo in October, which is said to be set to become East Africa's largest port - expected to handle double the capacity of the more southern port of Dar es Salaam. Meanwhile, the West African port of Lome in Togo is reported to have made a number of improvements in both capacity and efficiency that have significantly boosted transhipment traffic in the region over the past year, with the Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) having launched a service of 11 ships in January from the port on a circuit to Asia. Cameroon is building Central Africa's only deep sea port at Kribi, said to be intended to replace its current major port of Douala, which has been described by local media as being notoriously inefficient. Further, Gabon is reported to have begun construction in 2013 to improve one of its two major ports, Owendo, adding a new 500 metre...

In a move likely to signal a shift to the standard gauge railway (SGR) later next year, Kenya has invited bids for an adviser to help identify an operator for its new rail network that is set for completion in mid-2017. The 472km railway line is expected to carry freight trains at speeds of up to 80kph, and passenger trains at up to 120kph. It will run from the port in Mombasa to Nairobi then to Malaba, and then on to Kampala, Uganda and eventually to Kigali, Rwanda. “The transaction adviser will recommend the appropriate operating model for the railway which will then inform the procurement of the operator,” Kenya Railways said in a newspaper advertisement. This comes barely days after Kenya said it was in discussion over the funding of the last link of the SGR between Naivasha and Malaba after the Cabinet last week approved its extension. “Cabinet approved the development of the Naivasha-Kisumu/Malaba SGR project, which is Phase II of the Mombasa-Kisumu/Malaba SGR; the project will be financed on a government-to-government (G-to-G) arrangement in which Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), and China Communications Construction (CCCC) will sign the commercial contract,” the State House said. Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina said that they were in talks about funding for the remaining stretch of the standard-gauge railway. “With the Cabinet approval, we expect to commence talks that will see us agree on the amount. We also expect to start work on a link between Nairobi and Naivasha by December...

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...