Kenya, Ethiopia sign pact to end border conflict

[HalyeeyQaran]

Kenya and Ethiopia on Monday signed a Sh20 billion five year deal that will spur development and end conflict along border of the two countries.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn witnessed Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed and her Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom ink the agreement.

“This is a historic a function. The presence of the Prime Minister is a reminder of Ethiopia’s commitment to deeper relationship between the countries and the people,” President Kenyatta said.

Communities living along the border will be helped to improve their living standards through trade under the deal dubbed “Marsabit County/Kenya-Borana Zone/Ethiopia Integrated Cross-border and Area-based Programme”.

It also seeks to improve access to health, education, build social cohesion and trust between the communities.

President Kenyatta was also accompanied by Cabinet secretaries Hassan Wario and Joseph Nkaissery, and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua. They landed at the border town of Moyale shortly after 11am.

The President later received Mr Desalegn before the two unveiled a commemorative plaque marking a peace declaration between Marsabit County and Ethiopia’s Borana region.

Mr Desalegn said there was hope for peace in the area as the two governments are committed to developing the region.

“My government is committed to (addressing) historical marginalisation of this region and steer it from poverty and support cross-border programmes for sustainable peace,” he said.

He supports the idea of making the region a special zone for industrialisation.

The Lamu-Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor, he added, would further open up the area.

President Kenyatta said the new initiative would help transform the region.

“The programme will see Moyale being turned into the Dubai of Africa,” he said.

President Kenyatta said the construction of the Merille-Marsabit-Moyale highway would be completed in September 2016. The road is part of a highway from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo, Egypt.

He said the signing of the peace initiative spearheaded by the UN agencies and other development partners showed African countries can cooperate for mutual good.

“It also shows that Kenya is not a country of two classes of people — the forgotten and marginalised and the others as claimed by some people. We are one nation and we will develop all areas equally,” he said.

Despite the recent threats to the relationship between Kenya and Ethiopia following the crossing of the latter’s soldiers into Marsabit in search of Oromo Liberation Movement members, President Kenyatta said the two nations enjoyed good friendly relations.

“Our bond is strong…. We are working together to bring peace in Somalia… Together we will end conflicts in our borders. We will work together to build infrastructure that our people need,” he said.

Walaalaha!

These two glorious nations have set aside petty disputes in search of further development.

 

[Land of Punt]

hahaha you mean the ethiopia that will soon destroy itself due a minority ethinc group destroying the rest - the omoros, or you mean the kenya which will soon tear itself apart as the ruling bantu tribe has basically enslaved the other bantu tribes

but your right, even though both have a combned population of 150 million, livng in poverty, i guess they match norway in living standards....

 

[TheSayid]

ethiopias pimp hand is strong.