When do we get to open the gift from Nairobi?

This time of the year can be quite interesting. Everyone seems excited to see the year coming to an end; even those who may not have achieved any of the grand projects they proudly set up to work on at the beginning of the year when they felt a new supply of youthful energy. Others use this time to pompously remind others of the things they have achieved. When in a good mood, especially after a drink or two, they tap a friend on the shoulder and talk about how they bought a car, a plot of land, finished their Masters degree or made membership to that club of married people. I was in Kampala for some time and was reminded that during this time one need not look at a calendar to figure out most things. Unlike Kigali, Kampala gets into the holiday mood quite early and evidently. The moment you hear Boney M songs competing with the late Philly Lutaaya’s Chritsmas songs then you need not look for the decorations, it is Christmas time already. The tradition of people travelling to their villages to enjoy Christmas is still very alive and in a proper capitalist situation, the transport fares shoot up with the argument being that traffic tends to be one way – to the village and back to the city after the festive days. The increased traffic on the highways inevitably means an increase in the chances of road accidents happening. I met some friends who are in the car importing business and they were complaining that there are lots of traffic officers on their Mombasa – Kampala route which they say slows them down. If you ask me, anything that slows down my meeting with my creator is not much of a problem. Last year the high number of road accidents in Kenya compelled the government to suspend night travel. East African leaders of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan met once again in Nairobi to review the progress of the Northern Corridor Infrastructure projects that are expected to boost integration and lower the cost of doing business in the region especially the railway and oil pipeline. While in Nairobi, presidents Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Paul Kagame, and Uhuru Kenyatta as well as South Sudan’s Vice President, James Wani Igga signed an agreement that could see are travel fares going down by an impressive 40 per cent. Now if this is not a Christmas gift then I don’t know what is. However like all other well wrapped gifts, we may have to wait a while before opening it. The deal is said to be one that will revolve around declaring a joint airspace so that a flight from Kigali to Nairobi for example, is considered as a local flight attracting much less in taxes. It will be just like flying from Wilson Airport to Kisumu or Kigali to Cyangugu. This will be a huge development once implemented because air travel fares in the region have remained very prohibitive. It remains to be seen though whether carriers like Kenya Airways will be willing to give up their monopoly on the Nairobi Entebbe route that also seems to cost an arm and a leg now that Air Uganda is out of business. For now we should just remain optimistic that this gift will be eventually ‘unwrapped’ day. The above development will certainly be a game changer with capacity to boost regional integration as more and more people will embrace air travel. For instance I still remember when regional borders were made to operate 24 hours and what it meant for transport in the region. Many may not have noticed but the 24 hour operations led to a reduction in road accidents that happened as bus drivers rushed to get to a border post before it closed. There were also days when you would get to a border post very early in the morning and had to wait in the biting cold for the immigration officers to open up and attend to you. A lot has changed since then and as a Ugandan, it was very reassuring to see pictures of President Museveni using his national ID to clear with Kenyan immigration. Finally Ugandans can own national IDs and also use them to cross borders in the region. With the new IDs for Ugandans and the deal to cut the cost of air travel in the region, who needs a new Christmas from Bob Geldolf?

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When do we get to open the gift from Nairobi?