East Africa Economic Report

First flare up test at Hoima The French oil Major, Total S.A’s foray into East Africa’s oil exploration sector has run into headwinds. The foray itself brought tumult in the sector and the region. Farmed into Hoima Oil fields by Tullow Oil, Total SA soon began maneuvers to elbow out its hosts and take full control of the 1.7 billion barrel fields.  Tullow oil was the first oil explorer to find oil in Uganda in 2006. It farmed the oil Majors Total SA and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) for 33 percent stake in Hoima Oil fields in Uganda.  Meanwhile, Tullow Oil together with its Canadian partner Africa Oil had discovered oil in Kenya’s Lokichar Basin. So Tullow planned to export its crude through the proposed Lamu Port in Kenya. For this both governments in Uganda and Kenya agreed to set up a special purposes vehicle to build an oil Pipeline through Kenya.  But then Total, secretly contracted a US company, Gulf Interstate, to do a feasibilit...

Kenya is revving for faster growth in the coming year, all things remaining the same, we can report. The country, whose growth is among the fastest in the continent, is expected to register slow growth in 2017 compared to 2016.  Last year, national wealth grew by a robust 5.8 percent but is expected to slow down to 5.0 percent or below. However, all fundamentals for a fast turnaround are in place: the short- rains have been adequate and well distributed, inflation has turned south and will continue to do so as food supply increases, oil prices still look low and the political climate is cooling off albeit with pockets of noise. The short run headwinds namely; the uncertainties arising from a prolonged electioneering is well behind us, the economic tremor caused by the invalidation of the presidential vote on September 1 st is also behind us. The tide is turning in favour of economic prosperity.  Prolonged drought since the second half of 2016 coupled with poor long r...