President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses Kenyans in the diaspora in Kigali,
Rwanda, on Tuesday. He defended the newly found trilateral relations
with Uganda and Rwanda that has ignited disquiet from Tanzania. PHOTO|
PSCU
By Kazungu Chai ,The Citizen
Posted Thursday, October 31 2013 at 00:00
Posted Thursday, October 31 2013 at 00:00
In Summary
“This is to ensure that our people can move and do
business freely across the region. The artificial boundaries placed by
colonialists should not be allowed, in any way, to curtail our quest to
improve our region,”
Kigali.President Uhuru Kenyatta
has allayed fears that the East African Community (EAC) could be headed
for collapse following the coming together of Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and
South Sudan in infrastructure development.
He said all the five EAC member States were committed to integration.
“We are focused in our objective of uniting the
region and making it prosperous. In fact we are looking forward to our
brothers and sisters from South Sudan to join us soon to make our
regional bloc stronger,” he said.
He was speaking in Kigali on Tuesday when he met Kenyans working and living in Rwanda.
He explained that the fast-tracking of the
Northern Corridor infrastructure projects by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda
emerged out of the need to resolve the problem of cargo transportation
from Mombasa to Kampala and Kigali.
“Following concerns by our neighbours, I decided
to initiate measures that have succeeded in reducing the time taken to
move goods from Mombasa to Kigali from 22 to eight days.”
He said his government had also removed all the
roadblocks that were previously delaying the movement of cargo along the
Northern Corridor.
He disclosed that plans were underway to make the cargo movement across Kenya’s neighbours easier and faster.
He said the coming together of Kenya, Uganda,
Rwanda and South Sudan was aimed at addressing the four countries’
unique needs but was not in any way meant to undermine the EAC
integration process.
He disclosed that during the third Integration
Infrastructure Projects Summit in Kigali, the four leaders agreed to
implement a number of initiatives that would improve the lives of
people. One of them is allowing Kenyans and Rwandans to use their
identity cards as valid travel documents while Ugandans, who have no
IDs, would use their voter cards to grant them entry into any of the
three countries by January 1 next year.
“This is to ensure that our people can move and do
business freely across the region. The artificial boundaries placed by
colonialists should not be allowed, in any way, to curtail our quest to
improve our region,” Mr Kenyatta said.
He said the summit also resolved that there should
be a single visa for EAC where one could get it in any of the member
states regardless of whether or not they were citizens of those
countries.
“If you are a Kenyan in Washington and the Uganda or Rwanda
embassy is the nearest one to you, go to that embassy and you will get a
visa,” he explained.
On the Standard Gauge Railway line, Mr Kenyatta
said the region was moving fast and by 2018 the railway line would have
reached Kigali in Rwanda and Juba in South Sudan.
He emphasised that the completion of the Standard
Gauge Railway, the construction of which will start by the end of next
month, will reduce the cost of transportation and doing business in the
region.
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
