Expanding the country's cooperation with Rwanda and seeking new areas of partnership.
The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport Hon Kipchumba Murkomen today held a bilateral meeting with a high-level delegation from Rwanda in his office.The Rwandan delegation was led by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of Regional Cooperation, Hon. Gen.(Rtd) James Kabarebe.
The purpose of the meeting was to expand the country's cooperation with Rwanda and seek new areas of partnership.
The Cabinet Secretary held fruitful discussions that centred around the resolution of existing non-tariff barriers, streamlined transportation of cargo along the Northern Corridor, containerization of Inland Container depots in Naivasha and Malaba, regional integration, and the removal of bureaucratic red tapes that impede trade between the two countries.
Hon. Murkomen informed the delegation that the Ministry has already implemented H.E President William Ruto's directive to allow cargo to only be weighed at the Port of entry(in Mombasa) and the port of exit (Malaba) even as they worked with the Ministry of Interior to reduce road blockading the Northern Corridor to cut down on the time it takes to transport Cargo.
This effort, he said, will be complimented by ongoing plans to extend SGR from Naivasha to Malaba to allow faster, safer, and seamless transportation of cargo from the Port of Mombasa to the Sister countries.To enhance efficiency at the Port of Mombasa, the government installed modern equipment that increased container traffic from 1.4 million TEUs in 2022 to 1.6 TEUs in 2023with cargo throughput now standing at 36.9 million metric tonnes up from 33.8 metric tonnes in 2022.
The meeting also discussed collaborative efforts on road safety that will help reduce road crashes by long-distance drivers in Kenya and Rwanda, and ongoing efforts to dual the entire Corridor from Mombasa to Malaba to offer alternative means of transportation.
Kenya and Rwanda enjoy decades-long bilateral relations and partnerships in trade, agriculture, transport and infrastructure, tourism, energy and many more, that have further been strengthened through collaborative engagements between President William Ruto, PhD and H.E President Paul Kagame.
Present was the Principal Secretary for Roads Eng Joseph Mbugua, his transport counterpart Mr. Mohamed Daghar, Director General of Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Eng. Kung'u Ndung'u, representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Energy, Kenya Pipeline Corporation, Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Railways Corporation. The Rwandese delegation comprised of the Country's Ambassador to Kenya H.E Martin Ngoga, DG of trade and Investment Antoine Kajangwe, the Commissioner for Customs Services, Felicien Mwumvaneza, DG of Energy in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Jean Bosco Mugiraneza,and the DG for Africa in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francis Bukizagara.
