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Tanzania: Part of Country Bears Brunt of Kenyan Crisis
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
4 January 2008
Posted to the web 4 January 2008
Samuel Kamndaya
Supplies of goods from Kenya to Tanzania's lake zone have been cut.
The disruption has occurred as Kenya is gripped in post-election violence.
Some businesspeople told The Citizen by phone yesterday that Kenya's insecurity had prompted them to buy raw materials from Dar es Salaam instead of Nairobi.
"We transport such materials by road and pay about Sh3million per consignment as opposed to getting raw materials from Nairobi inexpensively, transporting them through Kisumu and then hauling them to Mwanza," Bright Oyat Manufacturers managing director Charles Mulaki told The Citizen.
Without disclosing actual amounts incurred in transporting goods through Kisumu from Nairobi, he said hauling materials from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza had raised costs by at least five per cent.
"I don't have actual figures at fingertips but generally water transport is cheaper and safer than road transport. After all, it takes at least three days to transport goods from Dar es Salaam compared with a maximum of two days to transport them from Nairobi through Kisumu to Mwanza," he said.
He is worried that continuing rivalry between Mr Kibaki and opposition Orange Democratic Movement will increase transport costs for Lake Zone businesses.
He said Lake Zone juice processing factories depended some raw materials from Nairobi.
Mwanza's Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) representative, Mr Moses Malabeja, shares Mr Mulaki's concern.
"Though I am yet to hear complaints from CTI members here, some importers who are not our members have stopped importing their items from Kenya. Since the Lake Zone is far from Dar es Salaam and therefore depends on Kenya, businesses they are as well affected by the Kenyan violence," he said.
In Tanga at the Holoholo boarder between Tanzania and Kenya, it is reported that things are still normal.
However, Tanga's CTI representative, Mr Mussa Nkhangaa, said the situation there was normal.
"It is business as usual in Tanga and I have not yet heard any complaint from any CTI member. In the morning, I checked for buses which ply to Mombasa and everything was normal," he said.
Muheza district in Tanga Region exports fruits to Kenya.
Meanwhile, Felix Mwera reports that Tarime is short of goods because traders are unable to buy them in Kenya after violence erupted in the country.
Bread, construction materials, edible oils and other goods are scarce in Tarime town.
"Even if we cross the border we don't get bread and almost all shops have been shut down," the town's bread dealer, Mrs Pili Shine, said yesterday.
"The situation is indeed alarming and I don't know how I am going to meet costs of educating my children. Some of them have to join secondary schools," she lamented.
She has been buying loaves of bread from Kenya for decades.
However, vendors say they have opted to sell locally made loaves of bread although their standards are lower than of those baked in Kenya.
A survey has established that bread prices have risen from Sh550 a loaf to Sh700.
The post-election violence has also pushed up prices of Kenya-made cement by 12.5 per cent to Sh18,000 a 50-kilo bag.
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Prices of edible oils and other goods have also risen.
Trouble erupted after the Electoral Commission of Kenya declared Mr Mwai Kibaki winner of the December 27 poll.
Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity was accused of rigging the election. Demonstrations spread across the country and riot police have been battling to crush them.
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