BUSIA, Kenya, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Quinto Okitwi has a strong attachment to his ancestral village in Western Kenyan county of Busia thanks to its tranquil weather and fertile soils that have shielded local communities from vagaries of hunger. The 56-year-old father of seven has been a farmer since the days of his youth and has no plans to abandon this vocation given that it has fed and educated his offspring without hassles. Okitwi's one-acre farm that is near Kenya-Uganda border is a case study in diversification thanks to encouragement from local agricultural extension officers and a private company that exports fresh produce to regional markets. Recently, Okitwi and hundreds of smallholder farmers in his locality have embarked on cultivation of chillies for export in a bid to broaden their revenue streams. "I planted chillies late last year after undergoing training on how to tend to this delicate crop. Toward the end of January, I managed to harvest 28 kilograms that fetched me 57 U.S. dollars," Okitwi told Xinhua in a recent interview at his farm. His ancestral village has not escaped the wrath of erratic weather patterns that have affected production of key staples like maize, sorghum, beans and millet. According to Okitwi, depressed rains coupled with voracious pests and diseases are to blame for food insecurity and poverty affecting the majority of smallholder farmers in the low lying plains of Busia County in western Kenya. "Farmers in this region have grappled with declining productivity linked to erratic weather...

The launch of the One-Stop Border Post on the Kenya-Uganda border is a step in the right direction. We urge the two East African Community member states to let the new post work by easing the movement of goods and people. The goals of the One Stop Border Stop will come to nought if we introduce new bureaucracy. Coming at a cost of Sh1.2 billion, the initiative shows that the two governments are keen on speeding up the flow of goods and people at the border crossing point. By combining the previous two stops into one, the two governments have shown their keenness in removing trade barriers and easing travel in the region. However, in order for the one border post to succeed there must be a massive culture change to discard old habits that have been slowing down service delivery. Both countries stand to gain a lot with faster clearance at the border crossing post. The benefits will gradually trickle down to the larger EAC bloc. Its success should also be a lesson for other member countries in helping achieve the EAC goal of regional integration. Source: Business Daily

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni are this Saturday expected to launch a revamped border crossing in Busia, signalling an era of faster movement of goods and services. The One-Stop-Border Post (OSBP) combines the traditional two stops for border processing into one, as well as consolidates other border control functions in shared spaces between the two countries for exit and entry points. Cross-border business advisory organisation Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) facilitated the funding for this project estimated at $12 million, with money coming from the UK Department of International Development (DFID) and the Global Affairs Canada. Officials say this type of border crossing was influenced by desire to improve revenue collection by speeding up clearance for goods and people wishing to travel to either side of the countries. Saving time The OSBP is expected to reduce transportation time by saving up to a third of the current time taken, a TMA assessment shows. The project began in 2011, after a TMA study showed Busia border crossing was one of the busiest in East Africa, at the time witnessing an average of 894 vehicles crossings per day. Back then, the time spent to cross the border “was variable taking between a few hours and up to five days,” TMA report said then. Delays caused sulky traders, which in turn discouraged export trade. The Ugandan side was completed in May 2016 while the Kenyan side was done in July 2017. Friday, travellers entering Kenya from Uganda are...

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni are this Saturday expected to officially launch a revamped border crossing in Busia, signalling an era of faster movement of goods and services. Officially known as the One-Stop-Border Post (OSBP), the border crossing in Busia combines the traditional two stops for border processing into one, as well as consolidates other border control functions in shared spaces between the two countries for exit and entry points. BORDER POST Cross-border business advisory organisation Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) facilitated the funding for this project estimated to have cost $12 million (Sh1.2 billion), with money coming from the UK Department of International Development (DFID) and the Global Affairs Canada. Officials say this type of border crossing was influenced by desire to improve revenues by speeding up clearance for goods and people wishing to travel to either side of the countries. OSBP is expected to reduce transportation time by saving up to a third of the current time taken, a TMA assessment shows. The project began in 2011, after a TMA study showed Busia border crossing was one of the busiest in East Africa, at the time witnessing an average of 894 vehicles crossings per day. The time to cross the border “was variable taking between a few hours and up to five days,” TMA report said then. The delay discouraged export trade. TIME The Ugandan side was completed in May 2016 while the Kenyan side was done in July 2017. Today, travellers entering Kenya...

Upon the full implementation of the prioritised projects, the region will have improved 7,600km of road surface, laid 4,000km of standard gauge railways, and increased the combined installed capacity of electrical power generation from 4245 MW to 6734 MW. EAC | INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT UGANDA - East African Community (EAC) partner states will maintain high budgetary allocations geared towards financing infrastructure development within their national borders. Works and transport minister, Monica Azuba Ntege, the chairperson of the EAC sectoral council of ministers for transport, communications and metereology, said the ongoing infrastructure development projects were meant to interlink the partner states and create a strong common market in the region with sights on the Tripartite Grand Free Trade Area. Ntege said the development of efficient, interlinked and modern infrastructure and energy systems will positively impact on trade, movement of persons, industrialisation, value chains, employment, investments that would prepare the regional economies for socio-economic take-off. She was speaking during the opening session of the Infrastructure roundtable on day one of the EAC Heads of State Joint Retreat on Infrastructure and Health Financing and Development at the Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, Uganda. Ntege disclosed that in their previous three retreats focusing on infrastructure development and financing the Heads of State had prioritised for implementation a total of 72 projects, split into 286 sub-projects over a 10-year period, ending in 2025. “The projects span roads, railways, maritime ports, inland waterways, electrical power generation and transmission, and oil and gas infrastructure,” she said. The minister...

Busia, Uganda | PSCU | Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has said integration of the East African region will be achieved with the development of shared infrastructure and political commitment of regional leaders. He said the region must integrate to be a truly bigger market, and economically attractive to compete with other economic giants. “We want to compete with the economic giants of the world. If we have to compete with giants we have to be giants ourselves,” said President Kenyatta. President Kenyatta and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni were in Busia town Saturday to commission a one-stop border post to ease the movement of goods and people across the shared border. They addressed a public barasa on the Ugandan side of Busia town. Museveni spoke to Uganda’s commitment to integration, but, in reference to fishing disputes by Kenyan small-scale traders, called for radar and tech surveillance to grow fish stocks as well as tackle disputes. The customs facility, straddling the border comprises offices and space for immigration processes and verification; warehousing and cold rooms for the goods traded across the border; and facilities for expediting trade. The one-stop border facility is part of measures Kenyatta and his counterparts from other EAC countries have spearheaded to ease the movement of goods and people within the region. The One-stop border post concept combines two national border controls into one thereby reducing the time it takes to clear goods and people across the shared borders. This reduces costs and overall time it takes to...

The official commissioning of Busia OSBP paves way for speedy clearance of goods moving in the main trade corridor between Uganda and Kenya. The Busia OSBP is part of the East African Community (EAC) regional initiative, implemented jointly with Kenya and Uganda, supported by development partners through Trademark East Africa, to the tune of Sh1 billion. Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is the implementing authority of the OSBP project in Kenya, while Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) implements in Uganda. The two have observed that the OSBP has brought about increased efficiency, interagency cooperation and improved coordination of all the border regulatory agencies. The OSBP project has further smoothened partnerships with private sector through Joint Border Committees (JBCs) and the National Trade Facilitation Committees. The streamlining of activities has led to a reduction of the average border crossing time from over 72 hours to less than six hours. At the OSBP, Kenyan and Ugandan officers share a roof, as they handle transit documents concurrently to save time. Other government agencies like the Bureau of Standards, Port Health, environment authorities, Immigration and Security are also present at the OSBPs quickening the clearance process. Based on estimates of the value of time for trucking enterprises and for traders, the savings generated by the improvement of border crossing in East Africa represent approximately USD70 million per year. The Busia OSBP, for instance, collected approximately KSh1.4 billion for Kenya in the 2016/17 financial year, recording a growth of 47 per cent since its inception. Further, the...

President Uhuru Kenyatta Saturday said integration of the East African region will be achieved with the development of shared infrastructure and political commitment of regional leaders. He said the region must integrate to be a truly bigger market, and economically attractive to compete with other economic giants. “We want to compete with the economic giants of the world. If we have to compete with giants we have to be giants ourselves,” said President Kenyatta. President Kenyatta and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni were in Busia town to commission a one-stop border post to ease the movement of goods and people across the shared border. They addressed a public barasa on the Ugandan side of Busia town. President Museveni spoke to Uganda’s commitment to integration, but, in reference to fishing disputes by Kenyan small-scale traders, called for radar and tech surveillance to grow fish stocks as well as tackle disputes. The customs facility, straddling the border comprises offices and space for immigration processes and verification; warehousing and cold rooms for the goods traded across the border; and facilities for expediting trade. The one-stop border facility is part of measures President Kenyatta and his counterparts from other EAC countries have spearheaded to ease the movement of goods and people within the region. The One-stop border post concept combines two national border controls into one thereby reducing the time it takes to clear goods and people across the shared borders. This reduces costs and overall time it takes to transport goods from one point...

President Museveni spoke East Africa to a lot of common sense in his written speech circulated ahead of the opening in Kampala on Thursday of the ‘EAC Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure and Health Financing and Development’. Very early on in the speech, the President puts things in perspective by declaring that “we owe it to ourselves and the future generations to ensure that this region has efficient, interlinked and interoperable infrastructure to enable our people to increase their prosperity through the exchange of goods and services”. Good stuff. But, as things tend to unfold, implementation gets in the way. I have never worked in the public sector and therefore have no close-up experience of how ideas get turned into actual projects that affect our lives. From the outside, I am always confused when the government announces a project only for basic issues (e.g. clean tendering, compensation/resettlement) to crop up to delay or fail the project altogether. I would expect that by the time the President, for example, announces that a road will be built in place X, all the groundwork has been done. In other words, the announcement would be more about when the project will actually start, how long it will take, how much it will cost, why it is needed, and possibly who the contractor is. When the government says it is expanding the Northern Bypass in Kampala over the next two years, one assumes that at that point all the funding has been got, compensation...

For a long time, there has been a desire to build a strong, integrated community in eastern Africa. Yet to fully integrate, political goodwill is essential, but has been lacking. Fear and mistrust of each other’s intentions have informed foreign policy in the region, thus hindering efforts that could lead to a strong regional bloc with the capacity to compete with other economic blocs like the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Fear revolves around the risk of local populations in east African countries losing their jobs to foreigners, either because they would provide cheaper labour or they would be better qualified. In South Africa, for instance, a paucity of jobs, and the few available being taken up by expatriate workers, has led to xenophobic attacks. The idea of an regional community is not a new concept, having been embraced by the founding fathers of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 1967. They believed more could be achieved by pulling together as a united people, but although the community took off to a good start, it broke up in 1977 because of mistrust. Kenya has demonstrated willingness to get the East African Community revived. On his inauguration day on November 28, 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta lay our borders open to citizens of the east African region. Sadly, diplomatic relations with Tanzania have not been at their best in the last few months. At some point, Tanzania banned Kenyan imports, impounded cattle that had...