East African bloc is still going strong, says Kenyatta

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

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