The second session of the Joint Ministerial Commission was held in Kampala yesterday and seven memorandums of understanding were signed between Kenya and Uganda.
The republic of Kenya was represented by their Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Dr Musalia Mudavadi who joined our Cabinet Minister For Foreign Affairs Gen. Jeje Odongo for the signing of the MOU’s.
The MOU’s signed were on Public Service Management & Development, Cooperation in the Field of Sports, On Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, In the Field of Youth Affairs, In the Field of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment , Cooperation in the field of Education, Training & Scientific Research and another one on the cooperation between the Foreign Service Academy of Kenya.
In his remarks, the Dr. Mudavadi said ” Kenya and Ugand have demonstrated remarkable social and economic inter-linkages that have yielded rapid transformation in our economies. The profound friendship between our two countries is the cornerstone of the shared socio-economic endeavors that will propel our national development programs and the 2063 to realize the aspirations of our people.”
“I urge both teams to continue working diligently to ensure that our political, economic and socio-cultural cooperation is deepened to achieve win-win growth”
“It is also imperative to address other outstanding issues relating to, immigration, boundary reaffirmation which has progressed at a slow pace due to challenges related to funding thereby impacting on the programme of action, and other cross border matters are addressed at the earliest,” he added.
In this meeting, the two countries agreed to settle tariff and none tariff barriers and Dr Mudavadi advised the technical teams of both countries to keep on meeting and consulting each other regularly.
In this Joint Ministerial Commission, the two countries (Uganda and Kenya) agreed to cooperate in Trade and Investment, Immigration and Customs, Energy and Natural Resources Development, Defense and Security, Health Services, Standards and Quality Assurance, Water and Lands and in Tourism and Culture.
This is a very unique opportunity for private business owners both in Uganda and Kenya and it is likely to work well with the signing of IGAD’s protocol on free movement of persons. The meeting also agreed that Kenya will host the third session come 2026.
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