Tanzania and Kenya have signed an agreement on the territorial border task force to speed up border mapping and demarcation covering 110 kilometres from Namanga in Arusha to Tarakea in the Kilimanjaro region.

Land officials from the two countries held a five-day meeting in Tanzania’s northern city of Arusha earlier this month to discuss and inspect the third phase of the border mapping and launch the other stages of the exercise.

The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) members from the Tanzania Ministry of Lands and Kenya International Boundaries Office (Kibo) agreed to map and modernise the border.

The JTC members will meet again in September to assess the progress, a report by the Lands ministry stated.

Tanzanian director of survey and mapping Hamdouny Mansour and Kibo chief executive Juster Nkoroi led the team for the joint discussions between the two countries.

During the first and second phases, some 348 kilometres of the border were demarcated with beacons.

Kenya shares a 758-kilometre border with Tanzania, stretching from the shores of Lake Victoria to the Indian Ocean coast.

The border was demarcated by German and British colonial governments in 1893 under the Anglo-German Agreement and later the 1906 Protocol, which set the current regional border between these two neighbour states.

Cross-border movements by cattle herders looking for green pastures, a common practice which existed for many years, including settlement on buffer zones, have blocked the identification of the territorial borders.

World Bank loan

Tanzania further plans to expand the mapping exercise in its northern region, which borders Kenya, to demarcate land for farming, cattle herding, wildlife conservation areas, human settlements, investment and industrial development.

Lands minister Angelina Mabula said the exercise would start in July to address growing land conflicts with a $150 million (Tsh355 billion) loan from the World Bank.

It will also demarcate the 100km border with Burundi. - APOLINARI TAIRO, The EastAfrican