Migingo Island talks resume

Jul 13, 2011

A delegation of Ugandan ministers and surveyors is set to travel to Nairobi for a meeting with Kenyans, to resolve the Migingo Island dispute.

By Raymond Baguma

A delegation of Ugandan ministers and surveyors is set to travel to Nairobi for a meeting with Kenyans, to resolve the Migingo Island dispute.

James Mugume, the Foreign affairs ministry’s Permanent Secretary, said the Ugandan team would include ministers of foreign affairs, lands, agriculture and fisheries.

Mugume yesterday said the meeting would discuss procedures for the resumption of the stalled survey exercise to redraw the Uganda-Kenya border in Lake Victoria.

The lands ministry, which is spearheading the redrawing, confirmed that minister, Daudi Migereko, permanent secretary Gabindadde Musoke and the director of land management, Justin Bwogi, would be part of the Ugandan delegation.

Lands ministry spokesperson Denis Obbo said discussions were still at a high level, before the land experts could begin to determine the border.

Kenyan media yesterday quoted the country’s foreign affairs minister Prof. George Saitoti saying they would be considering the boundaries for the islands as well as deciding whether or not they would have to review their boundaries to reflect the island as theirs.

The row over the one-acre island has simmered since 2004 when Ugandan security pitched camp at the island to fight piracy in Lake Victoria.

Uganda Police is controlling security in Migingo in line with an agreement signed in Arusha in April 2009 by Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Mwai Kibaki to resolve the dispute.

In 2009, the two countries instituted a survey to determine who owns the island.

The Ugandan team returned home for consultations and later returned for the survey. The Kenyan team also left for consultation, but did not return.


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