No end to blame game in Migingo row

By Kepher Otieno and John Oywa

Kenya and Uganda continue to trade accusations over who is to blame for the stalled joint survey of Migingo Island.

Kenyan surveyors say Uganda was to blame for recalling its personnel.

But a Ugandan minister is accusing Kenya of failing to attend a crucial meeting that could have resolved the deadlock.

A recent issue of the Ugandan State-owned newspaper — New Vision — quoted the country’s spokesman Fred Opolot as blaming the delay on failure by Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula to attend a crucial meeting with his Ugandan counterpart Sam Kutesa.

"In an effort to unlock the stalemate, Kutesa wrote to Wetang’ula proposing a meeting to resolve the issue. However, no response has been received from Kenya on the same, Mr Opolot said.

He added: "Until the meeting takes place, there will not be any way forward."

But Kenyan surveyors have accused their Ugandan colleagues of shifting goal posts on the Migingo issue.

Non-committal

Kenyan Director of Survey Ephantus Murage said the Ugandans were non-committal on when they would return to complete the work whose schedule of 60 days has expired.

Meanwhile, the balance of Sh60 million allocated for joint survey on the island will not be returned to the Treasury, after all.

So far, the Kenyan team has only spent about Sh10 million of the Sh70 million allocated to the joint survey to determine the boundaries of the island. Uganda gave a similar amount.

Mr Murage disclosed the balance would be spent on reviewing international boundaries.

"Our colleagues have refused to return to complete the exercise. They communicated to us three weeks ago asking that we resume work, but they didn’t turn up. Now they have gone silent, what do we do," he asked.

The Ugandans, he claimed, had turned the exercise into a ‘ping pong’ game amid growing anxiety from fishermen and that is why they were exploring other options.

"We have decided that if they don’t come back then we spend the balance in mapping the international boundaries to beat the African Union deadline of 2012," explained Murage.

Kenya has not reviewed and updated its boundary maps for the last 30 years, as required by the African Union.

 

 

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