Tanzanian-registered tour vans will no longer be allowed to access the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and game parks in Kenya.
East African Affairs, Trade and Tourism Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie said a three-week window requested by Tanzania to allow both countries to discuss and sort out the issue had elapsed.
“The meeting to discuss these issues has not taken place,” Ms Kandie said.
“Those three weeks have now expired without our Tanzanian counterparts convening the meeting for the negotiations,” she noted.
Ms Kandie said the government had, as a result, resolved to implement the bilateral agreement between Kenya and Tanzania in 1985 to ensure fairness of trade between the two countries.
TANZANIA’S REFUSAL
The decision to invoke the bilateral agreement was taken following Tanzania’s refusal to allow Kenyan vans into the country.
The agreement stipulates how tourism operations between the two countries should be conducted.
It provides that tour vans drop holidaymakers at convenient points in their respective countries as opposed to an earlier arrangement where tourists were being dropped at border points.
The cabinet secretary, however, expressed hope that the agreement would soon be reviewed to ensure ease of doing business in both countries.
-nation.co.ke