KENYA AND TANZANIA AGREE TO MEET ON FEBRUARY 05TH
(Posted 24th January 2015)
Following recent ‘countermeasures’, taken in December last year when Kenyan authorities stopped Tanzanian registered tour vehicles from entering the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was a meeting between the two countries’ tourism ministers convened last week to attempt resolve the long simmering row over access.
The meeting initially ended in an impasse, agreeing only to meet in coming weeks which was giving each side the opportunity to prepare a wider agenda before Kenya, as a gesture of goodwill, eased access to JKIA through which an estimated 40 percent of tourists visiting Tanzania arrive in East Africa and then also depart.
Information emerged from Nairobi on Saturday that the two countries will meet on the 05th of February with the venue still to be confirmed. Both sides are said to be working feverishly on a comprehensive wish list but also an agenda of grievances, which suggests that the February 05th meeting will only be a first of many as several agenda items are controversial at best and insurmountable at worst.
Following the re-opening of the common border in late 1984 – Tanzania had unilaterally closed the border to keep Kenyans out of the country after the collapse of the first East African Community – were several modalities agreed for tourism businesses to operate cross border safaris. Initially were tour companies to exchange safari clients at the border of Namanga or Taveta, though this was later relaxed permitting Kenyan registered cars to actually drive on to the Tanzanian towns of Moshi and Arusha and drop off their clients at the respective hotels. From there however did Tanzanian safari companies take over the transport. In the other direction were Tanzanian safari operators, and notably shuttle busses from Arusha to Nairobi, able to drop off their clients for the Kenya portion of a safari, at such towns like Voi or Nairobi, unless they opted for the exchange at the border.
Contentious remained access to national parks by Kenyan registered safari vehicles, though privately registered cars from Kenya were usually permitted into the parks as long as it was for a private safari and not a commercially sold trip. Private vehicles were also able to cross, with prior permission, from the Serengeti into the Masai Mara while commercial traffic over this previously thriving border post was banned under the 1985 agreement between the two countries.
The demand to open the Bologonja border once again for all traffic is thought to be high on the agenda of the Kenyan delegation to reduce on driving time and make East Africa safaris more user friendly. Several regular source in Nairobi even suggested to voluntarily refrain from day excursions and accept that vehicles entering at Bologonja must exit at a different border point such as Namanga after completing visits to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Tarangire.
While many Tanzanian officials mistakenly belief that this change in border traffic is a purely Kenyan demand have international tour operators in fact pushed for this change as they anticipate cost benefits besides making safari itineraries more convenient for their clientele who are presently subjected to plenty of back and forth should they opt for a safari covering both countries.
‘I hope that Bologonja will appear high on our agenda’ said a regular Nairobi based source before adding ‘None of the arguments advances holds water why this border post should remain closed for commercial traffic. Even now, the same traffic runs up to Lobo but after a huge detour via Namanga and then has to go back the same way, a colossal waste of time for tourists. Environmental concerns? My a***! We burn a lot more fuel operating safaris via Namanga than would be the case if Bologonja were open. If no progress is made though we still have the option to stop access to JKIA again. It is sad that this affects safari tourists but if this entire East African Community thing has any meaning these issues must be resolved. Look how far the Northern Corridor cooperation has gone in a year, simply because everyone involved has seen the benefits to work hand in hand. We no longer have to pay for work permits when operating into Uganda or Rwanda. We have a common tourist Visa for all three countries and after a slow start it has began to sell. We have had our phone tariffs aligned and even air transport has eased among the three. Why not expand these gains to the other two EAC members as well’.
Tanzanian operators however are adamant that they would be swept away by what one Arusha based source called ‘The Kenyan avalanche’ if the country were to permit unfettered access of vehicles and personnel to the Tanzanian parks. For the same reason are Kenyan, and in fact Ugandan safari airlines kept out of the park airfields and equally have to drop off their passengers at one of the approved entry point airports where Tanzanian airlines are then supposed to fly the final leg into the parks.
To make matters worse has Tanzania last weekend banned the distribution of East Africa’s premier regional weekly newspaper, the EastAfrican which has been on the market for the past two decades. Allegations of having failed to register the paper which is published in Nairobi were instantly rejected by the Nation Media Group which candidly alleged ulterior motives and ill intent by the Tanzanian authorities. The paper had ran several spicy stories about corruption and other ills in the Tanzanian government and ahead of the upcoming elections later this year has it long been suspected that the government in Dar es Salaam will use less carrot and more stick methods to brow beat independent media houses into toeing their line or else face retaliation.
Added a Kigali based source, wading into the thick of the present political debate and current affairs: ‘We remember how they expelled thousands upon thousands from Tanzania into Rwanda. Those poor people, many actually Tanzanian citizens, lost much of their property. They were driven like livestock, out of their homes and across the border with little warning. Senior officials in Tanzania grabbed from them, leaving them homeless and in poverty. We remember well how the Tanzanians hosted several times delegations from the FDLR which are mortal enemies of our state based in Eastern Congo. Those killer militias continue to wreak havoc and have ignored a UN directive to disarm in early January. Tanzania went like rabid dogs after the M23 militia because those guys were rumoured to be a Rwandan and Ugandan proxy militia. But now, when it comes to doing the same with their South African buddies to the FDLR, they are nowhere to be seen. The played host to the FDLR leaders, what agenda do they have. Of course, when the media expose such schemes they lash out at them. We hope that the elections will bring some fundamental change of direction because otherwise we cannot think of them as partners in the EAC but of a fifth column aiding and abetting our enemies’.
What started out as a tit for tat spat between Tanzania and Kenya may well spiral further and strengthen the resolve of the Northern Corridor cooperation countries to move even closer together. Stark choices await no doubt and the upcoming elections, as mentioned previously, will very likely create a scenario that cooler and more collected minds will be swept away in the maelstrom of electioneering and populist utterances, none of which will actually help to resolve the fundamental differences of opinion which led to the ban on Tanzanian vehicles accessing JKIA in Nairobi. As the saying goes, watch this space and mark the 05th of February in your calendar to hear the latest developments after the two protagonists met for a second time.
