It’s approaching dusk in the border post town of Taveta.  At the far horizon to the West, the golden rays of the setting sun are sinking behind the South Pare mountain ranges below the saddles of the breathtaking view of snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro.

A number of accommodation facilities in town are fully booked, but guests are still arriving in droves. At Challa hotel near Taveta new town market, the guests are scrambling for the few remaining rooms, a clear sign of activities building up activities in the town.

Economic growth

Welcome to new Taveta, a complete departure from the once sleepy dusty town it was before the opening of Sh8.4 billion Mwatate-Taveta Road in 2017 to open up the border post town and stimulate economic growth in the region.

The road which is part of a transnational highway runs from Kenya through Tanzania to Burundi. It was the Kenyan side that remained untarmacked until the African Development Bank agreed to jointly fund the project with the government.

Nestled at the South West of Taita hills along the Kenya-Tanzania border, Taveta town is fast becoming a business hub with traders from both countries capitalising on its proximity to the transnational border coupled with developed transport infrastructure.

According to Hamisi James, a businessman from Eldoro in Taveta he buys foodstuffs from Tanzania in Holili to sell in Kenya using boda boda and following all the legal customs procedures at the Taveta One-Stop Border Post (OSBP).

“Since the Mwatate –Taveta Road was constructed, the business has been good. Now I have clients who come all the way from Voi and others from Mombasa to purchase cereals, rice, Maize flour and other foodstuffs,” he says.

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Southern Region Coordinator Joseph Tonui says since the East African Community officially launched the first one-stop border post (in Holili/Taveta towns on the Kenya/Tanzania border in 2016, the Authority targets have improved by leaps and bounds from 2019 across to 2022.

“On many occasions we have over-performed and produced a surplus in our targets. This is attributed to deployment of efficient use of technology and sensitisation of cross-border communities about the importance of the OSBP which has increased efficiency by reducing time and transport costs incurred by businesses, farmers and transporters while crossing from one State to another,” explained Tonui.

In 2020, he said the border collected Sh2.6 billion on exports while in 2021, the figure grew to Sh3.2 billion.In 2022, Sh3.3 billion was collected from exports .

– Reuben Mwambingu