State House Cancels Summit on ICT Over President Magufuli's Visit to Kenya

State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu on Sunday announced that they had been forced to re-schedule their plans due to President John Pombe Magufuli's visit to Kenya.

Addressing the media, Esipisu divulged that they had cancelled the State House summit on ICT that was set for Tuesday this week to enable President Uhuru Kenyatta host the Tanzanian President who will be visiting the country for the first time since he was elected to power.

“The State House Summit on ICT has been postponed to November 7th, because of the State Visit by Tanzania’s President Magufuli,” part of the statement by State House read.

Manoah divulged that the two Heads of State will discuss a wide range of issues that will be of mutual benefit to the two countries. They include:

1. Work permit fees charged to Kenyan nationals

2. High university fees charged to Kenyan nationals

3. Non-tariff barriers between both countries

One of the most important thing in the discussions will be the Kenya–Tanzania Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC), which is a mechanism through which promotion of trade and investments in both countries is carried out.

Tanzania has disappointed Kenya on several occasions after pulling out of crucial deals at the last minute.

Recently, Tanzania dealt Kenya a major blow after pulling out of the common visa project that was launched amongst Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to boost tourism in the East Africa region.

The initiative dubbed ‘the coalition of the willing’ would have enabled the East African countries to market tourism as a single project and also allow tourists to use the same visa while travelling to the East African countries.