EAC trade up 47 per cent ahead of Customs Union

By John Oyuke in Arusha

Trade within East Africa Community (EAC) grew by 47 per cent last year despite earlier fears that a regional free trade area would negatively affect economies of some partner states.

An evaluation of the impact of the Customs Union has revealed that intra-EAC trade moved from $1.85 billion (Sh139 billion) in 2005 to $2.72 billion (Sh204 billion) last year.

Exports to the rest of the world also grew by 26.2 per cent last year compared to the previous year.

Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda called for acceleration of the integration process saying trade performances are a clear indication of the positive trends by the EAC Partner States.

“Contrary to earlier perceptions that the Customs Union would negatively affect the economies of some Partner States in revenue erosion and competitiveness, major benefits have accrued in terms of increased trade and revenue,” he said.

A vegetables market. From next year, goods will be traded free of duty within the five partner states of the East Africa Community. Photo: File

Pinda was speaking at the East African Community Regional High Level Forum on Customs Reforms and Implementation of a fully-fledged Customs Union in Arusha at the weekend. Implementation of the Customs Union has been progressive since 2005 through a gradual removal of tariffs on intra-EAC trade.

Improving performance

It was against this background that a gradual phase down of duties on selected lists of goods from Kenya to Tanzania and to Uganda was adopted.

From next year — as per the progression — goods will be traded free of duty within the five partner states of the East Africa Community, that is, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The EAC Customs Union will be fully-fledged next year. This is expected to coincide with commencement of the Common Market, which is slated to begin in July next year.

Pinda said with this in mind, improving the performance of the Customs Union should be key to development of the region.

“This is because the EAC would witness not only the free movement of goods enabled by the Customs Union, but also the free movement of persons, labour, services and capital,” he added.

 

source.standard.ke

New thinking needed to fight hunger in Africa

By Peter Orengo

African countries have been challenged to embrace commercial agriculture to combat food shortage.

The International Center for Soil Fertility and Agriculture Development (IFDC) said many countries were over relying on subsistence farming.

It said the East Africa Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) should develop an input market information system to spur commercial production.

Speaking at an international training forum attended by agricultural stakeholders from East and southern Africa, IFDC East and Southern African Division director Rob Groot asked countries to expand agriculture.

“The food situation in Africa is deteriorating because agriculture is looked at as a development practice rather than a commercial entity,” Groot said.

He added that African markets are not developed due to lack of access to crucial information.

“The role of the inputs market in promoting food security and agricultural growth is critical to the success of regional and national policies,” Groot said.

In East Africa, he said the use of agro-inputs including fertilisers and improved seeds was extremely low, at an average of 8kg per hectare.

Increased output

This cannot be compared to India, the US and Australia, who use four times the amount, resulting into increased production.

Based on IFDC experience in Africa, participants heard that output market demand is a major driver for increased food productivity if combined with other market components that drive the value chain.

In Kenya, despite having favourable agricultural soils, nearly 10 million people in marginal agricultural areas are estimated to be highly food insecure.

The food insecurity follows a succession of poor seasons since March 2007, that have resulted in a series of below average harvests, culminating in near total crop failure during the last short rains season.

This failure was compounded by a precipitous rise in food and non-food prices that began in January 2008 and has continued into this year, the forum heard.

In addition, tightened food supplies had arisen due to reduced domestic production and a decline in cross-border maize imports, reduced food availability in local markets.

Experts blamed the perennial food insecurity on over reliance on rain-fed agriculture.

The Government has since rolled out irrigation projects to supplement rain-fed food production.

IFDC said the revamping of agricultural co-operations and trade association could help in food production and provide farmers with extra cash from their produce.

 

source.standard.ke

Kenya ready for polishing: Revealed – What new constitution says

By OLIVER MATHENGE

In Summary

• Team of experts does a balancing job of dispersing power and entrenching rights

 

The proposed constitution provides for an executive prime minister, a two-chamber parliament and devolution, according to a working draft seen by the Daily Nation.

In a sign of hope for reforms, the Committee of Experts has substantially finished writing the new constitution and is fine-tuning it in readiness for publication this week.

On Monday, Attorney-General Amos Wako was in meetings with the committee and therefore changes may be made to the draft reported here.

The draft proposes a radical overhaul of the way the country is governed. It proposes a majimbo system with governments at the national, provincial and country levels.

The national government will be made up of two houses of parliament and an executive consisting of the State President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

The draft will propose a powerful executive prime minister who will play the roles now assigned to the President in the current Constitution.

However, the prime minister will not be the head of state, chairman of the national security committee and the commander-in-chief, roles which will continue to be played by the president.

The prime minister is not elected directly by the people, rather, he is picked by MPs from amongst themselves.

The proposed draft constitution scheduled for publishing this week is promising to radically alter governance in Kenya.

The Cabinet will be made up of a maximum of 20 ministers, all nominated by the prime minister and appointed by the president.

The prime minister, who will be in charge of the running of the government, will have leeway to appoint up to half of his Cabinet from outside parliament.

The proposal effectively transfers executive authority from the presidency to a prime minister, who will be the leader of the party with the most MPs.

The president, who retains some powers, will still have to be popularly elected, and must get more than 50 per cent of the national vote in addition to 25 per cent of the vote in at least five provinces.

The president will still have the power to appoint public officials, but in consultation with the prime minister and at times with the authorisation of parliament.

The president will not be an MP and will not sit in the Cabinet. But he or she will remain the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and have the power to sign Bills into law.

In an interesting innovation, the president will be able to send Bills to parliament for enacting into law. But he or she will also be able to choose to send such Bills directly to the people, who can adopt them into law through a referendum and with no input from parliament.

The Head of State will still dissolve parliament but it will just be a formality at the end of the legislative term or if the government falls through a vote of no confidence. Parliament will have its own calendar fixed in law and the president will be stripped of his power to dissolve it at will.

The draft provides for a system of devolution based on 14 regional assemblies and 70 county governments that will be headed by governors. Other than the Nairobi Metropolitan, governed by a popularly elected mayor, the other 13 regions will have between three and nine counties.

The country will have two houses — the Senate and National Assembly — and will also have regional governments which will replace the Provincial Administration.

The new law requires that no gender should occupy two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly.

Elected members

In the Senate, every county will have a representative while every region will elect two women. One person to represent either the youth or persons with disabilities will be elected from every region. In total, the document proposes a senate of 113 members including a speaker, who will be an ex-officio member.

Other than the elected members representing constituencies, 70 seats will be reserved for women in the national assembly. There will also be seven members representing marginalised groups and a similar number representing persons with disabilities.

If the current number of constituencies is retained, the national assembly, according to the draft will have 295 MPs, including a speaker. The new parliament will therefore have a total of 406 representatives and two speakers.

On devolution, the new draft improves on the Bomas and Kilifi drafts by providing clearer provisions on relations between the central and regional governments, particularly on matters of taxation and jurisdiction of relevant institutions.

The county governments will deal with the socio-economic issues affecting the areas but shall have to be consulted by the regional governments.

The national government will deal more with formulating policy and leave the implementation to the regions and the counties.

The draft wants major changes in the Judiciary, with all judges required to step down when the new constitution comes into force. They will only be reappointed if they are cleared of corruption.

The draft has also retained the Islamic kadhi courts as currently constituted.

The new constitution will also allow for dual citizenship and sets up a commission for resource allocation.

The draft will now be published, then taken to Parliament and subjected to a referendum next year.

source.nation.ke