Kenyan minister blocked in bid to 'gatecrash' Tanga port

By Felister Peter

  Growing acrimony over the route of a crude oil pipeline from Uganda is now threatening to spark an all-out diplomatic row between Tanzania and Kenya

UNINVITED GUEST - An entourage led by Kenya's Energy Cabinet Secretary, Charles Keter (pictured above), was kept waiting at the VIP lounge of the Tanga airport while the officially invited Ugandan delegation was given a tour of the Tanga port by Tanzanian officials.

 A Kenyan minister and his delegation tried to enter the Tanga port area without invitation on Wednesday, leading to Tanzanian officials denying him access to the harbour, as a dispute over the route of a proposed oil pipeline from Uganda to the Indian Ocean continues to strain relations between Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.

 

Kenya's Energy Cabinet Secretary, Charles Keter, and other senior officials from the neighbouring country made an unannounced visit to Tanga in an attempt to visit the port and inspect its viability as the preferred hub for the export of crude oil from Uganda.

 

Keter and his team were accompanying an official delegation from Uganda, led by that country's energy and minerals development minister Irene Muloni, who were on a scheduled visit to the port arranged beforehand  by authorities in Dar es Salaam.  

 

However, the local officials denied the Kenyan delegation entry to the port after it emerged that they were not on the official list of invited visitors.

 

Confirming this, Tanga regional commissioner Martin Shigella said: "We were only notified about the Ugandan minister’s visit to the port. The Kenyans were not on the official list of accompanying delegates that we received from the (Tanzanian) Ministry of Energy and Minerals.”

 

The RC explained that on the basis of suspicions that the Kenyan delegation might be a group of impostors, Tanzanian immigration officials proceeded to temporarily confiscate their passports to verify their identities.

 

“It was a normal verification exercise ... we wanted to be sure of their nationality and government titles,” Shigella said.

 

The Kenyan officials were later given back their travel documents, but still barred from entering the port area without proper authorization, as their mere presence in the country had not been officially communicated to the Tanzanian government.

 

Apart from Keter, the Kenyan delegation also included the country’s principal secretaries for petroleum and energy, Andrew Kamau and Joseph Njoroge respectively.

 

The chief executive officer of the Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project, Sylvester Kasuku, was also part of the uninvited Kenyan entourage.

 

The tour by the Ugandan minister and her team was part of preparations for the construction of a planned crude oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania via Tanga port, scheduled to begin later this year.

 

According to RC Shigella, the visitors declared their satisfaction with the port's performance and facilities at the end of their inspection tour.

 

 

HOW IT ALL UNFOLDED

 

 

A well-placed government source told The Guardian that the drama began on Wednesday when the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Prof. Justus Ntalikwa, and RC Shigella arrived at the Tanga airport to welcome what they understood to be an official Ugandan government delegation that was scheduled to land in four helicopters and proceed to the port area for an official visit.

 

A slight commotion ensued after it was established that the Ugandan entourage was accompanied by another, unannounced delegation comprising at least half a dozen high-level Kenyan officials led by a cabinet minister, Charles Keter.

 

"When local officials discovered that the Kenyans were in fact not a part of the official Ugandan delegation, they informed them that they were not allowed to leave the airport and enter the port area," our source said. 

 

The Kenyan delegation was asked to remain within the airport’s VIP section while the Ugandan delegation was permitted to continue with their journey to the port area.

 

It is also understood that the Ugandan energy minister and delegation leader, Irene Muloni, tried to insist that her Kenyan counterpart (Keter) and his team be allowed to accompany them to the port area, but was flatly turned down by Tanzanian security officials.

 

“The security people firmly told her (Muloni) that since the Kenyans were not on the list of officially invited delegates, they could not be allowed to enter the port area," the source said.

 

It could not be immediately established why Muloni was so insistent on being accompanied by Keter to the port area.

 

The Guardian could not also independently establish why a Kenyan delegation was trying to gain access to Tanga port without a formal invitation from the Tanzanian government, especially at this time when Tanzania and Kenya appear to be in deep competition for the Ugandan pipeline project.

 

According to known diplomatic protocol, Kenya was supposed to officially notify Tanzania in writing of the planned visit, and await authorization before going ahead.

 

Some analysts have pointed out that Kenya's 'gung-ho' approach in this matter could end up straining Tanzania-Kenya relations to breaking point.

 

 

DONE DEAL

 

 

According to State House spokesman Gerson Msigwa, the agreement with Uganda for the pipeline’s construction through Tanzania is already a done deal despite the ongoing desperate maneuvering by Kenya for the project.

 

Presidents John Magufuli (Tanzania) and Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) jointly announced the agreement after meeting in Arusha early this month and a project implementation plan has already been signed between the responsible ministers from both countries.

 

The idea remains to fast-track the project, especially after global energy giant Total –an interested party - assured President Magufuli that the $4 billion needed for the project is already available.

 

Although Museveni has since held talks with Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi about possibly switching the pipeline route back to Kenya rather than Tanzania, no such agreement was reached. The two are said to be set for further talks in Kampala in a couple weeks time. 

 

Officials say Tanzania beat Kenya in the race for the pipeline because of its more favourable geographical position and safer route. Concerns have been raised about the fact that the proposed Kenyan route runs through areas near Somalia where al-Shabaab terrorists are known to be quite active.

 

Kenya also has a long history of protracted land compensation disputes which could further delay the pipeline project. A recent study has furthermore noted that the Lamu port, which is where the Kenyan route is supposed to end, is yet to be built.

 

On the other hand, Tanzania already has a port in Tanga which could be effectively expanded at a relatively fast speed to act as a hub for the export of Ugandan oil to international markets. The country also doesn’t have the kind of land compensation complications experienced in Kenya.