Kenya to spearhead southern Sudan’s reconstruction

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 11, 2005 (PANA) — Kenya has agreed to build an airport control tower in Rumbek, the proposed capital of the semi-autonomous Southern Sudan, and to provide air- traffic controllers to run the new airport, Kenyan officials said Saturday here.

Kenya also has agreed to provide military and police
training to the southerners and to undertake a joint
civilian disarmament programme with other countries in the
region to stabilise the South.

The wide scale concessions were made during this week’s
first official fact-finding mission to the Southern Sudan
led by Kenyan assistant trade and industry minister
Zaddock Syongo and a group of industrialists drawn from
the manufacturing sector.

The ministry said the two authorities agreed on 16 areas
of cooperation, including the setting up of a customs and
immigration department, training of personnel to handle
the energy sector and tourism training.

Kenya will offer its state-run institutions to train
250,000 Southern Sudanese civil servants and open up
Nairobi’s institutions of higher learning for Southern
Sudan diplomats to train in the country instead of going
to Europe to do such training.

“The University of Nairobi diplomacy school is ready to
take Southern Sudan students on a crash programme as well
as other long term courses in diplomacy.

“Presently, Southern Sudan diplomats are trained in Europe
and other countries. It was agreed this be done in Kenya
because it is cheaper and more convenient,” the ministry
said.

Southern Sudanese officials who attended the discussions
with the Kenyans were not named but the Kenyan mission
quoted them as having undertaken to offer a conducive
environment for Kenyans wishing to settle in the war-
scarred region.

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and its
nemesis, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), which
represented industrialists at the talks, said they were
ready to establish a commercial area in Lokichoggio, near
the common border, to serve as a supply centre for the
Sudan market.

They will also help in establishing financial services,
insurance services and banking institutions for the vast
region.

Southern Sudan has only one banking institution.