The 7 treaties that Samia and Uhuru signed in Dar

Senior Journalist with The Citizen

Mwananchi Communications Limitted

What you need to know:

The seven treaties included agreements on immigration issues; prisons and prisoners exchanges; border veterinary control; health, housing and housing development, and an agreement on investment issues.

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania and Kenya on Friday reached another milestone in the journey of strengthening relations between the two countries. This was manifested in the signing of seven Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) intended to facilitate and bolster cooperation in various fields.
The seven treaties included agreements on immigration issues; prisons and prisoners exchanges; border veterinary control; health, housing and housing development, and an agreement on investment issues.
This comes following a two-day state visit by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to Tanzania, where he arrived on Thursday as an official guest at the 60th anniversary Independence Day celebrations in Dar es Salaam. He also took the opportunity to hold talks with President Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday.
The signing of the MoUs came after a Joint Cooperation Commission (JCC) was established at a meeting of the two presidents in Nairobi, Kenya, last May. The commission met in August this year and outlined mutually-beneficial proposals that resulted in the just-signed agreements.
The two presidents expressed a need to further deepen cooperation in areas of mutual interests, including foreign affairs, trade, urban development, agriculture, livestock, mining, energy, health, transport, infrastructure, defence and security, tourism and immigration.
On trade, the two heads of state noted the increased volume of trade between the two countries following the successful resolution of 46 out of the 64 non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that were identified as hampering trade and investment between the two countries.
In terms of imports, President Hassan noted that Kenya has already imported goods from Tanzania valued at more than three times this year, compared to the previous year’s imports. This had Tanzania selling goods and services to Kenya valued at more than Sh1 trillion.
“Its advantage is that there is now business growth, from Sh885 billion in the previous year (2020) to Sh1.1 trillion in 2021. This shows that there is good business growth so far,” said President Hassan.
The two Presidents directed the responsible ministers to ensure that they resolve the 18 remaining 18 NTBs in the shortest time possible to speed up strengthening of trade between the citizens of both countries.
“There are still some challenges that remain unresolved and we have instructed our trade ministers to continue consulting, see what the remaining challenges are and how we can address them, whether it is to change policies or laws so that we can entirely let the business grow,” said President Hassan when briefing journalists.
The two Heads of State highlighted the growing importance of the private sector engagement including deepening and expanding the current investment levels as they reaffirmed their commitment to facilitate bilateral investments by putting in place measures to ease establishment of commercial enterprises in both countries.
They reiterated their commitment and that of their government to continue implementing the strategic bilateral projects, including fast-tracking construction of the natural gas pipeline from Dar es Salaam to Mombasa, and that of the East African coastal corridor project road connecting Bagamoyo to Malindi in Kenya.
The two presidents also deliberated on how to join efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergencies of the new variant Omicron.
“We have directed have instructed the health ministers who have signed the agreement today (yesterday) to work together on this issue because we are all victims and that is why we have agreed to fight this enemy together,” said President Hassan.
For his part, President Kenyatta said all that they discussed focused on finding methods and techniques that they would use to ensure that the two countries continue to be closer, not just neighbours but closer to fraternity, trade, tourism and other different things.
“God has blessed Tanzania with natural gas, instead of us using oil from the (Persian) Gulf countries and elsewhere, we should buy Tanzanian gas.
“This is good for Tanzanians and Kenyans because, by doing, so we will have a source of clean and affordable energy that will also help people improve their lives,” said Mr Kenyatta.
Meanwhile, President Hassan also handed over to her counterpart a certificate of ownership of 20 roan antelopes in appreciation of the excellent bilateral relations between the two countries and cooperation in the tourism sector.