The East African Business Council (EABC) has again implored the government of Kenya to compensate Rwandan and Ugandan traders and transporters whose properties worth $47m were destroyed following Kenya’s 2007-2008 post-election violence.

Members of the EABC last week met with Kenya’s Deputy President, William Ruto at his residence at Karen in Nairobi and the EABC sought an update on the issue of compensation for the investors.

The apex body of business associations of the Private Sector and Corporates from East African Community (EAC) countries says that the 16 traders who saw their trucks and goods destroyed along the Nairobi-Eldoret-Kampala highway, have suffered in silence after their eight years’ efforts to get compensation through diplomatic channels, have born no fruits.

"The Deputy President [Ruto] promised and directed the ministers to act. We are optimistic it will work,” EABC CEO, Lilian Awinja, told Sunday Times.

Awinja noted that the EABC decided that Rwandan businessman, John Bosco Rusagara, the regional body’s Director of Infrastructure, Transport and Resource Mobilization is the affected traders’ "representative or spokesperson.”

An EABC statement says Ruto directed the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Henry Rotich, to convene a meeting as soon as possible with EABC key players, "to solve the issue once and for all.” Accordingly, the meeting will also be attended by the Internal Security Cabinet Secretary, Maj Gen Joseph Ole Nkaisserry, Attorney General and other relevant officials.

Reached for comment, Rusagara told Sunday Times that they were advised to handle the matter in "an EAC spirit as well as engage one lawyer to minimise costs.”

"For eight years, we’ve experienced a lot of distress. The traders have faced legal action from their creditors whose dues are a direct result of the loss they suffered. Unlike the traders, creditors have long lost their patience and commenced recovery proceedings,” he said.

In 2009, the affected traders and transporters commenced a claim against the Attorney General of Kenya.

"The Attorney General recommended the case to be settled out of court and an inter-ministerial committee was formed to detail the settlement.  The Committee evaluated and analyzed evidence and legality of the claims, and a compensatory amount was then settled upon and approved by the Attorney General,” Rusagara said.

In January 2012, at a meeting with the then Kenyan President who was also at the time EAC Chair, Mwai Kibaki, in Nairobi, the latter directed that the compensatory payments be made and the matter be resolve conclusively but nothing conclusive was done.

In yet another meeting in Kampala, Uganda, in November, 2012 following another plea for his intervention by the traders, the Kenyan leader issued a directive to the then Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Trade and Industry in the presence of Kibaki’s Private Secretary, Nick Wanjohi, to settle the compensation claim within the shortest time possible but, again, nothing happened.

Several other diplomatic channels including the EAC Secretariat were used by the traders to no avail. Reminders were sent to the Kenyan Attorney General in November 2013 and in January 2014 to inform him that "interest may be added to the claim if no action is taken” but these too were to no avail.

In May 2015, a letter was also written to Amb. Dr. Amina Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting her involvement.

"The traders who suffered great loss have been waiting, diligently for compensation. They made every possible move to follow up, including visits by their EABC Ambassador, Keli Kiilu, to all concerned offices. These proved to be unsuccessful.”

Early last year, current Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta instructed the Kenyan treasury to establish a fund to be used for restorative Justice with a view of providing relief for victims of the post-election violence.

The Ugandan and Rwandan traders also thought that their plight would be addressed but to their dismay, whereas Kenyan victims of the post-election violence were compensated through the new scheme, the former were not.  

Stephen Ruzibiza, the Chief Executive, Private Sector Federation (PSF), said: "This issue has dragged on for so long and it suits best if the claim can be settled urgently”.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw