President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni have announced the setting up of a border commission to resolve the long-standing Migingo Island ownership dispute.
The two leaders, who held bilateral talks at the State House, Mombasa, yesterday mandated the new team to look into the demarcation and delineation of border.
Addressing a joint media briefing after the meeting, President Uhuru said the commission would also come up with solutions on sharing of fish resources among fishermen from both countries.
He said sustainable utilisation and sharing of the water resources in Lake Victoria can benefit the two countries.
“Our ministers have agreed to put together a formal border commission to look into boundary issues, including the Migingo Island tussle,” he said.
In 2009, the two governments launched a similar initiative but it did not end the dispute.
President Uhuru said the two countries had agreed to set up more One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) to ease movement of goods and people.
The Head of State said increased border posts in recent years had led to unprecedented rise in trade volumes between the two countries.
He also invited Uganda to join Kenya in the joint development of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to ensure it extends to Kampala.
Uhuru asked for Uganda’s support of Kenya’s bid for a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council for the 2021-2022 term.
“We will continue to work with Uganda to handle security threats in the region and we are counting on their support for our bid on the permanent seat,” he said.
Museveni said increased border points will shorten long distances that Kenyans and Ugandans have to travel to cross the border and end smuggling of goods.
He, however, encouraged citizens of the two countries to utilise legally recognised entry points to avoid running into conflict with laws enforcers of the respective countries.
“The opening up of more border points will allow free movement of goods and people. I thank Kenya for its commitment to increasing the boarder crossing points so that people don’t have to go round,” he said.
Museveni also renewed his commitment to the extension of the SGR to Kampala saying he was impressed with ease of moving goods and people that the new railway line had brought.
He said Uganda is still committed to meeting part of its bargain on extending SGR and was happy to be the fist foreign Head of State to use the service today.