East Africa Community Musa Sirma (right) and EAC secretary general Richard Sezibera address a news conference at Laico Regency March 16, 2012. President Kibaki urged the EAC ministers to urgently remove barriers that hinder the free movement of people and goods within the region. PHOEBE OKALL
President Kibaki has urged East Africa Community ministers to urgently remove barriers that hinder the free movement of people and goods within the region.
President Kibaki noted that some of the non-tariff barriers were so cumbersome that they inhibited intra-EAC trade.
"We cannot fully boast of regional integration when our people still cannot interact freely and do business without restrictions,” President Kibaki said Friday during a meeting with EAC ministers, who paid him a courtesy call at his Harambee House office.
The Head of State welcomed the decision that Kenyan trucks entering Tanzania will no longer be charged Sh16,000.
Briefing President Kibaki on their recent ministerial meeting resolutions, the EAC ministers said they had agreed that the visa charges on Kenyan businessmen entering Tanzania will also be removed.
The ministers said they had resolved that roadblocks in the Northern and Central corridors be reduced from 36 to 5 in Kenya, from 30 to 15 in Tanzania while Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi should not have any roadblocks at all.
The ministers also said their meeting agreed that transit vehicles will be weighed twice from the port of entry and port of exit for the four partner states of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi while Tanzania awaits a study on the establishment of weighbridges.
The ministers included Uganda’s first Deputy Prime Minister Eriya Kategaya, Tanzania’s EAC Cooperation minister Samuel Sitta, Burundi’s EAC Affairs minister Halsa Mossi and Kenya’s Musa Sirma among others.
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