Despite Kenya and Tanzania being bilateral partners, the animosity between the two countries has gone berserk and is now vivid, shrugging off the cold war that had engulfed the two East African nations.
Starehe MP Charle’s Njagua alias Jaguar's rant over the deportation of foreign workers in Kenya did not go down well with Tanzania’s parliament.
Several politicians in the neighbouring country reacted angrily forcing the speaker to order the government to address the safety of Tanzanian workers in Kenya. Jaguar’s sentiments sparked war and added salt on an already existing wound.
Here are eight more incidents that have had the two states at loggerheads, highlighting the murky relationship the two nations are intertwined in.
In 2016, Tanzania declined to be part of Kenya’s Ksh380 billion diesel powered Standard Gauge Railway during its inception as other East African countries agreed to the round table meeting.
Later, it unveiled plans to build its own electric powered rail just after Kenya had launched hers in June. Tanzania also declined to invest in the regional, Kenya-driven LAPSSET railway and pipeline project according to The Standard.
In September 2017, a court in Tanzania ordered the auction of about 1,300 cows belonging to the Maasai community in Kenya. This is after the herders failed to pay a fine of about Ksh23 million. Nairobi is said to have tried to negotiate the matter in vain.
A month later, Tanzania burnt alive 6400 chicks from Kenya stating that they were illegally exported. As per a report by the Nation, the chicks worth Ksh 577, 000 were impounded at Namanga Border Post in Longido district, Arusha region, before they were burnt.
The chicks were owned by Arusha-based businesswomen Mary Matia. The Tanzanian government banned chick importation in 2007.
The same month, Tanzania auctioned over 1000 cattle belonging to Kenyan pastoralists which had trespassed into the neighbouring country. President John Pombe Magufuli supported the move, stating that he would not spare foreign livestock finding its way into Tanzania.
In March 2018, Tanzania again burnt 5,000 one-day-old chicks illegally imported through the northern Namanga border with Kenya. The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Livestock, Maria Mashingo, said the unnamed importer did not have the necessary documents.
Tanzania claimed the move to destroy the chicks was aimed at preventing the spread of bird flu. The move also escalated trade wars between the two neighbours.
Six months later, a Kenyan, Sylvia Mulinge’s work permit was declined by Tanzania’s Labour Commissioner, denying her to ascend to the position of CEO of a company based in Tanzania. According to the Citizen, the statement did not explain the reasons for the rejection of the Kenyan national but media reported that the government of Tanzania believed there were more experienced Tanzanians to take over the task.
That same month, September, Kenya hit back at Dar es Salaam by imposing new tariffs on Tanzania products like flour after the neighbouring country ignored a deal that granted Kenyan-made chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, and sweets unrestricted entry into her market.
This came after Tanzania and Kenya failed to resolve the trade war sparked by the use of imported materials in goods made in the countries, setting the stage for a fresh round of the trade war.
In March 2019, Tanzania and Kenya once again were locked in a trade war over the testing of goods crossing their borders. Kenya filed a complaint with the East African Community Secretariat after Tanzania held Kenyan goods for more than seven days to collect samples for testing.
In football matters, Harambee Stars take on Tanzania Stars on Thursday, in an AFCON derby in Cairo, Egypt. The game is a must-win for both teams as they seek to salvage themselves from an early departure in the tourney. The game has elicited reactions from both countries with supporters heaping pressure on the teams.
