JK, Uhuru end row on tourist vans, KQ flights

 
Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Bernard Membe addresses a news conference yesterday in Dar es Salaam.  With him is the acting permanent secretary in the ministry, Mr Rajab Gamaha.  PHOTO | VENANCE NESTORY 

By The Citizen Reporter

Posted  Monday, March 23  2015 at  07:42

In Summary

• Tanzanian vehicles allowed into JKIA again as Kenya Airways gets back its 42 weekly flights
• Member says high-level talks are scheduled to take place in Dar es Salaam next month to iron out any differences on the issues that remain between the two neighbouring countries

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Dar es Salaam. President Jakaya Kikwete and his Kenyan counterpart, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, have resolved the dispute between the two countries, which had its roots in Kenya’s decision to ban Tanzania-registered vehicles from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi.
The two heads of state agreed that Tanzanian tourist vehicles be granted unrestricted access to JKIA with effect from 4pm yesterday.
They also agreed that Kenya Airways (KQ) resumes flying to Tanzania 42 times a week after the country slashed the number of flights by Kenya’s flag-carrier to 14 last week in what was widely seen as a tit-for-tat move.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Bernard Membe, said yesterday the agreement was reached when presidents Kikwete and Kenyatta held talks in Namibia on Saturday.  They were in Namibia to attend the country’s 25th independence anniversary celebrations and the swearing-in of Mr Hage Geingob as Namibia’s third president.
Mr Membe said  the bilateral meeting discussed the decision by the Kenya’s tourism ministry last December to bar Tanzania-registered vehicles from JKIA and the move by the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) to cut the number of KQ flights into Tanzania to a maximum of 14 weekly.
“The meeting in Namibia was very cordial,  with the two heads of state emphasising the need to continue discussing openly issues affecting the brotherly and long-standing bilateral relationship that exists between Tanzania and Kenya,” Mr Membe said.
As Mr Membe spoke in Dar es Salaam, his Kenyan counterpart, Ms Amina Mohammed, also addressed a news conference and issued a similar statement in Nairobi on the outcome of the Namibia talks, which the  two ministers also attended.
Mr Membe said the decisions made by Kenya’s tourism ministry and Tanzania’s Ministry of Transport were interpreted around the world as a serious problem in relations between the two countries. “Tanzania and Kenya are brothers and should not allow divisions. If there are differences, let us resolve them amicably and quietly,” he said, adding that he and Ms Mohammed would hold a joint meeting next month with the ministers for tourism and transport from both countries to discuss the recent tiff and find a lasting solution.
“The meeting on April 29 will be held in Dar es Salaam and will be attended by representatives of the presidencies of Kenya and Tanzania.  It will to discuss and reach a mutually beneficial agreement,” he said.
Kenya barred Tanzania-registered tourist vehicles from JKIA on December 22 following complaints by Kenya tour operators that Tanzanian national parks were out of bounds for them while their counterparts from across the border had a free reign of Kenyan tourist attractions.
Several round of talks between government officials from the two countries failed to resolve the issue, and TCAA last week slashed the number of KQ flights into Tanzania to 14 from 42, a 67 per cent reduction.
The decision came as a big blow to KQ, which has for a number of years maintained a stranglehold on the Dar es Salaam-Nairobi short-haul route.  It is one of the airline’s most profitable routes.
The decision by presidents Kikwete and Kenyatta should come as a relief, mainly to members of the business communities in Tanzania and Kenya, who had called for a speedy  resolution of the dispute between the two countries, saying it was affecting their businesses.
Tanzanian tour operators said the decision to bar them from JKIA forced them to incur “huge” expenses to hire taxis to take visitors from the airport to the Kenyan town of Athi River, where they were picked up by Tanzania-registered tourist vehicles for the 110-kilometre journey to Arusha.
The TCCA’s move, on the other hand, was likely to inconvenience people travelling frequently by air between Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.