State plans to lift visa rule to East Africans

By Luke AnamiA Cabinet paper seeking to ratify the East African Community Common Market Treaty will be ready by next month, Amason Kingi, the EAC Minister has said."Consultations on the draft at the national level are ongoing," Mr Kingi said. "Regional meetings on the same have also been scheduled."A team from the ministries of EAC, Trade, Finance, Immigration and Foreign Affairs will study the protocol and advise government on how to ratify the treaty."This process will see the launch of a massive awareness programme on the Customs Union and Common Market protocol," Mr Kingi said during a media briefing at his office, which was also attended by Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang.He said his ministry was evaluating market response to the new Customs Union regime and hope to have an indicative scenario in the coming weeks.Lift tariffsKingi said the implementing ministries and Government agencies including Treasury, State Law Office and Kenya Revenue Authority have been notified to facilitate the removal of all internal tariffs to ensure Kenyan goods can freely access the EAC countries.This follows the coming into force of the East African Customs Union protocol, which took effect on January 1 this year.The protocol will facilitate the free movement of goods, persons, labour and capital across borders in the East African region. Labour mobilityThe ministry has put in a place a communication strategy to sensitise Kenyans on all issues pertaining to the treaty starting this month.Kajwang said Kenya is considering the removal of visa requirements and work permits for all EAC nationals before the end of the year."All East African nationals will now be required to acquire machine readable Identification Cards, which will act as travel documents in the region," he said.He said third generation ID cards would soon be issued to all Kenyans to facilitate free movement of people within the EAC region.He allayed fears that opening borders will pose increased security risk to the country, adding that relevant authorities will be taking care of any issues.

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