East Africa Economic Report

 There is a surge in the frequency and intensity of terror attacks on Kenyan Soil. In an- 8 – week period  up to Mid-July, there were 15 terror incidents in Northern Kenya towns and Lamu county at the coast,  a majority of which involved blasts caused by IEDs.  The Mangled wreckage of an APC hit by Al-shabaab AIED This is in sharp contrast to the situation between January and April this year, when only one or two incidents were reported per month in Wajir County, says Kenya’s stability and Risk Report for July this year. The 15 incidents cost 55 lives a majority of them Security agents. Forty security agents including Policemen and Soldiers. The rest were civilians including four school children, nine adults beheaded and a relative of a Permanent Secretary who was killed as the terrorists abducted the PS. She was later rescued by the security forces. Out of the 15 incidents, thirteen involved IED blasts targeting the security agents. The death toll f...

Snarl-up at Kibarani Mombasa:  Traffic jams begin at the Island. The expanded Nairobi- Mombasa Highway will be a toll road, we can report. The highway will cost a whopping US$2.2 billion (Kshs230 billion at current exchange rates) which, according to the feasibility study, will be recouped in 25 years. This is one of the five major highways slated for tolling. Others are: the Nairobi- Nakuru- Mau summit road; the second Nyali Bridge; the Thika- Nairobi road and the Southern By-pass also in Nairobi. The implementation of the projects under PPP model means the projects will be undertaken by the private sector who will recover their investment in the course of the life of the projects. Currently, transport cost accounts for around 30% of the cost of goods and services across the region due to poor infrastructure and the thousands of man-hours lost in traffic daily. These projects will, to a large extend, cut down costs for motorists in terms of fuel savings, lost m...

Africa plans to have a single air  transport  market by 2018, David Kajange, the Head of the Transport and Tourism Division at the African Union (AU) has announced. Over 40 countries are expected to be signatories by then. So far, 20 African countries out of 55 have subscribed to the African single  air market. Mr. Kajange was speaking during the ongoing 29th AU summit, which is underway in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The single air transport market is one of the goals of AU’s Agenda 2063, aiming to connect Africa through aviation and other transport infrastructure to achieve integration and boost intra-Africa trade. The single air transport market also aims to boost African nations’ tourism, economic growth, and economic development. “Africa became the most expensive air transport market in the world because of individual nations’ policies and regulations that hinder air connectivity,” said David Kajange. According to Euroavia International, a f...