East African Business Week

NAMANGA, TANZANIA - Ugandan Immigration officials at the border posts are not giving travelers outside Uganda the required six months as required by the East African Community Common Market Protocol.
According to Regulation 5 of the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons, a citizen of a partner state who seeks to enter, transit or exit a territory of another partner state, has to present a valid common standard travel document or a national identity card where a partner state has agreed to use machine readable and electronic national identity cards as a travel document.
Upon fulfillment of the requirements, a person is issued with a pass which entitles that citizen to enter into the territory of the host partner state and stay for a period of six months.
However, due to the complicated processes and the many requirements of acquiring a passport and national identity cards which have only been introduced by Kenya and Rwanda, the other partner states citizens of Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi are mostly using temporary movement permits which they get at the border posts like Busia in Uganda at a cost of about $50.
The temporary movement permit issued at the border mentions your name, where you are coming from and going, purpose of visit and validity.
"For us in Tanzania we offer the temporary permits free of charge for one year and it is only when it exceeds one year that one is required to pay," said the Tanzanian Officer in charge of the Namanga Immigration station Albert Kishe.
A traveler from Uganda to Tanzania who talked to East African Business Week at Namanga said that she paid Ush5000 ($2) to get the temporary movement permit at Busia border post.
The validity of her document is only 30 days as offered by the immigration officer at Busia.
"At Namanga we cannot give a Ugandan citizen more time which is beyond the validity of the 30 days offered by the immigration officer at Busia. It is them who limit Ugandan citizens on the time they should stay in another partner state," he told journalists at Namanga.
"They are supposed to give an East African Citizen three to six months although the Kenya and Tanzania governments extended this period to one year aimed at encouraging East African integration process and this became effective after the operationalisation of the Common Market Protocol in July 1, 2010," he explained.
Kishe said the protocol also allows a citizen whose pass is due to expire and who wishes to stay in a partner state longer to apply to the immigration office of the partner state for an extension of the pass before the expiry date.
"A pass issued under these regulations shall be issued without a fee," he added.
Assistant Inspector, Immigration Azizi Kirondomara said they have received complaints from Tanzanians who travel to Kenya that they are issued with one week of one month stay even if they ask for the official six months when they are holding an East African Passport.
"The question is when the partner states' governments will introduce a common travel document that serves all categories of citizens," he asked.
He said most of Somali illegal immigrants use corrupt Kenyan and Tanzanian officials to allow them entry in their mission to transit to Mozambique and South Africa.
"Kenyans who are issued with temporary permits sell them to Somalis where they substitute their original photos and travel as owners of the documents," he said.
"There have been cases where Kenyan passports have been issued to Somalis using forged supporting documents to the passport issuing authorities and use these to Mozambique and South Africa," Kirondomara told journalists who visited the Namanga border post to assess the challenges facing Common Market Protocol in July 1, 2010.