Egyptian women wash pots and pans in the River Nile in Qalyoubia village north of Cairo. Nile Basin countries are in a row over water sharing deal. File Photo
Kenya’s frosty trade relations with Egypt could come under renewed pressure after the government joined other East African states in endorsing a new water pact that the Arab nation has rejected.
Water minister Charity Ngilu on Wednesday appended her signature to the Nile Basin Co-operative Framework Agreement (CFA), making Kenya the fifth country to officially endorse the new legal framework that aims to redistribute water equitably among the nine riparian states.
Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia have already signed the CFA, which Burundi and DRC are expected to sign before the end of the month, ending decades of Egypt’s stranglehold on the Nile waters.
The agreement will test the application and legality of both the 1929 and the 1959 Nile Treaty signed between Sudan, Egypt and the British government – the latter signing on behalf of the colonies it administered in East Africa.
Egypt and Sudan are opposed to the new agreement, based on the Nile Basin Initiative of 1999 that seeks to create an intergovernmental Permanent Commission to manage the Nile waters.
The permanent commission has powers to vet and approve hydro power and irrigation projects in signatory states situated upstream.
“It has been a long journey of up to 10 years of negotiations, but we had to safeguard utilisation of Lake Victoria waters and rivers feeding into it because they are indispensable for our country,” Mrs Ngilu said.
Under the 1929 and 1959 treaties, Egypt enjoyed an exclusive right to veto any large scale project in Nile basin.
This meant that a farmer who wished to engage in commercial farming in western Kenya for instance must – in addition to clearance by national regulatory agencies - get a letter of no objection from Egypt to use for irrigation Lake Victoria water or rivers feeding it like Yala and Nzoia.
Kenya has rejected the old agreement saying her rivers contribute 11 billion cubic metres out of the 90 billion cubic metres that Lake Victoria discharges to the River Nile annually.
The lake contributes 15 per cent of the Nile waters while the rest comes from Ethiopian highlands.
The move by Kenya to endorse the treaty came just one day after Egypt said it would block its implementation by the upstream states and could open a diplomatic war between the Nile basin states and Egypt.
A section of international press quoted Egypt’s Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam as saying that any project that relies on the river’s flow will only be recognised if approved by Egypt and Sudan “in accordance with international treaties.”
Sudan, which initially rejected the 1929 treaty that gave Egypt sole control of Nile waters has since softened its stand to become Cairo’s key ally.
The 1959 Agreement was between Egypt and Sudan in which Khartoum got political recognition and a substantial portion of the Nile waters which it later donated to Egypt.
Kenya and other Nile basin countries have however stood their ground.
“By signing this agreement, we are discarding the colonial era treaty and nothing is going to stop us from using the Nile water resources according to its provision,” said Mrs Ngilu.
The standoff between Kenya and Egypt over the application of a new CFA is likely to open another front in the long standing trade and diplomatic disputes with Egypt, putting trade worth billions of shillings at stake.
Just like Kenya, Sudan and Egypt are Comesa members with which Kenya is currently implementing a custom union.
Trade between Kenya and Egypt has grown significantly over the last five years in favour of Kenya.
Government statistics indicate that Kenya’s exports to Egypt reached Sh15.5 billion in 2008 compared to imports of Sh10.8 billion.
Egypt is currently the leading export destination for Kenya’s tea.
Figures from Tea Board of Kenya indicate that in the first quarter of 2010, Egypt imported 25.3 Million kilogrammes of Kenyan tea, accounting for 22 per cent of the total export volume.
This performance outshone other key export destinations like UK which imported 22.5 Million kilogrammes, Afghanistan’s 7.3 Million Kgs, Pakistan’s 15.2 Million Kgs and Sudan which imported 5.8 Million Kgs.
Egypt on the other hand exports a range of household goods to Kenya ranging from toiletries to foodstuffs which have occasionally run into problems with the revenue of officials for flouting tax laws.
A senior water ministry official who took part in the CFA negotiation but did not want to be quoted discussing a matter being discussed at ministerial level said Egypt and Sudan opted out of the Nile talks after disagreeing with the wording of the new legal framework.
Article 14(b) of the CFA signed by Mrs Ngilu yesterday states that no country in the region will be allowed to use the Nile water resources in a manner that it ‘causes water security and significantly affects other users.’
Egypt and Sudan want the phrase to read “causes water security and adversely affect current users”.
The search for an equitable distribution mechanism of the Nile water resources got a new impetus from two years of drought that heightened pasture and water conflicts among communities in the region last year.
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