The Impact of Border Management Practices on International Trade between Kenya and Tanzania: A Case of Namanga Border Point

Abstract

International or cross-border trade remains one of the most controversial elements of international relations for decades now. Despite the need for working systems to enhance cross-border or international trade between Kenya and Tanzania at the Namanga One-Stop Border Post, there are indications that the border point could be facing challenges in terms of collaboration, coordination, and communication among border agencies from across the two countries. The main objective of this paper was to explore the impact of border management practices on international trade between Kenya and Tanzania, a case of Namanga One-Stop Border Post at the Kenya-Tanzania common borders. The following specific objectives were addressed: to examine the effect of collaboration between state border agencies on international trade between Kenya and Tanzania, to assess the impact of coordination between state border agencies on international trade between Kenya and Tanzania, and to examine the influence of communication between state border agencies on international trade between Kenya and Tanzania. The paper utilized secondary data to address its objectives where the systematic literature review was anchored on export base theory. The literature review noted that there is no doubt that border management practices play a significant role on international trade between Kenya and Tanzania, especially with reference to Namanga border point. To a greater extent, there is no harmonization of the operations of key border control agencies for effective facilitating of trade between the two countries. It also emerged that there are inadequate collaboration efforts, ineffective coordination, and weak communication strategies for strengthening international trade relations between Kenya and Tanzania. Therefore, a lot still needs to be done where the two governments and other key non-state stakeholders in international trade can operate under harmonized policy and practice structures for enhanced interstate trade facilitation