Officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), immigration department, internal security and border management secretariat have set up a new Kenya-Uganda entry point in West Pokot.
The national and county government officials assessed Konyao area near Alakas as a set up point for custom duty offices to enhance trade between the two countries.
The current border entry/exit points to Uganda are Busia, Lokitanyala, Lwakhakha, Malaba and Sua.
The community members living along the border set aside two hundred acres of land for the customs border point.
The custom point is meant to boost national revenue collection, ensure effective and controlled trade affairs between citizens from the two countries and, stabilize peace.
The lack of offices in West Pokot led the government to set up the border post so as to facilitate the trade between the two counties.
“The traders between these two countries go through this particular border post but when they have issues, we don’t have offices here. This is what has necessitated the government to come in quickly so that we can facilitate our traders who are going to Uganda and vice versa,” said West Pokot County Commissioner, Apollo Okello.
Apollo further stated that due to the increased trade between Kenya and Uganda, there was an urgent need to make sure operations ran smoothly at the border.
“We will start working immediately we get the necessary documentation on that particular land. This is going to take the shortest time possible to make sure this border point is set up,” he added.
The county commissioner also promised that legitimate trade would be practiced at the border noting that Uganda had set out their office at the Alakas border point.
The Ugandan point has now been in operation for over three years which also motivated Kenya's need to operationalize the border point.
According to the Director of Border Management Secretariat (BMS), Kennedy Nyaiyo, 26 potential points of entry had been observed along the border of Kenya and other border countries for the past two years.
