Kenya has opened its first one-stop border post with Tanzania in a bid to cut the time taken to clear goods between the two nations and increase volumes of transhipment cargo through the Port of Mombasa.

The $12 million (Ksh1.2 billion) facility at the Taveta-Holili crossing is intended to reduce by a third the time trucks take to cross the border and will also cut the distance between Mombasa and Bujumbura by 400 kilometres.

The one-stop-border post is first to be commissioned among the total 15 border facilities under construction across the East African Community bloc and South Sudan.

“In addition to facilitating farmers and business persons from northern Tanzania to access the Kenyan market, the Holili-Taveta post will also enhance mutual interactions, create synergy, unity of purpose and sustainability,” said Phyllis Kandie, Cabinet Secretary for Labour and East African Affairs (EAC), at the launch of the post on Saturday.

Ms Kandie presided over the opening with her Tanzanian counterpart Augustine Mahiga and EAC secretary-general Richard Sezibera.

A one-stop-border post brings together immigration and customs officials from two countries under one roof, doing away with the need for trucks and persons to undergo clearance twice at both sides of the border.

TradeMark East Africa, a multi-donor agency, executed the project with funding from United Kingdom’s DFID, Canada, United Stated Agency for International Development and the and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Although it has its own seaport at Dar, Tanzania is fast becoming Kenya’s important transhipment destination with latest Kenya Ports Authority’s weekly data showing it overtook South Sudan and the DR Congo to emerge second after Uganda.

Official data shows that an average of 60 trucks pass through the Taveta-Holili crossing from northern Tanzania into Kenya, mostly ferrying cereals such as maize, beans, rice.

About five to eight trucks cross the border from Kenya, mostly comprising motor vehicles, clinker and exports destined for Burundi.

Dr Mahiga said the Holili-Taveta post is a sign of thawing economic and cultural relations between Kenya and Tanzania.

“It’s a demonstration of the trust between the two countries and that the One People One Destiny dream is slowly being realised through various EAC initiatives,” he said.

Dar-es-Salaam has been staying out of integration projects done by the “Coalition of the Willing”, namely Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

Control mechanisms

Dr Sezibera said the one-stop border post will make it easier to ship goods from the port of Mombasa through the Voi-Taveta-Holili-Arusha transport corridor to landlocked economies such as Rwanda, Burundi and DRC.

“This post will boost trade by facilitating faster clearance of cargo, realise significant reduction in transport cost and ensure effective border control mechanisms are put in place,” said the secretary-general.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Tanzanian host John Pombe Magufuli are expected to lay the foundation stone for the Arusha-Holili road tomorrow on the sidelines of the EAC Heads of State extraordinary summit.