Kenya launches joint service charters for its 35 border points of entry and exit

Principal Secretary for Internal Security and National Administration Dr Raymond Omollo launched the Border Management Committees (BMCs) Joint Service Delivery Charters in Nairobi on 9 November, The Star reported. The charters cover Kenya's 35 designated Ports of Entry and Exit across land, air and sea.

The charters set out the service timelines that travellers, traders and other border users can expect, the charges that apply, clients' rights and a formal way to complain when service falls below the stated standard. Most regulatory processing services are expected to remain free.

They are meant to harmonise service standards and timelines among agencies including the Directorate of Immigration Services, the Kenya Revenue Authority, the National Police Service and the health inspectorates. The Ministry of Interior said in a statement that border operations had been run in silos along agency mandates, with gaps in communication and competing institutional interests.

At land borders, the charters are to standardise procedures at crossings with Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. At airports they cover passenger clearance and cargo processing, and at seaports they cover coordination of security checks. Information is to move between agencies through channels coordinated by the Border Management Secretariat, to cut delays caused by poor inter-agency communication and withheld information.

At the same event at the Kenya School of Government's Kabete campus in Nairobi, Omollo opened the 12th Cohort of the Kenya Coordinated Border Management Programme (KCBMP), the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) reported. "We currently operate 35 designated Ports of Entry and Exit and share borders with five countries," he said.

Citizen Digital reported that Omollo told the cohort that closer collaboration among agencies will help address security challenges, and that effective border security depends on integrity and information sharing. He praised earlier efforts by joint teams against cross-border and transnational crime, including seizures of narcotics at entry points, and said the government has invested heavily in technology to enhance security.

The programme rests on five pillars: inter-agency coordination, building knowledge by equipping border officers and stakeholders with skills, service delivery, efficiency in border operations, and border security.