Regional Integration Policy for Kenya 2015

Abstract

Regional integration is a global instrument used for development with social, economic and political impacts, providing expanded markets and investment areas. Countries that successfully manage integration embrace open policy frameworks; in which the contributions of different stakeholders are harnessed for the benefit of the whole. This has resulted in a number of challenges including; non-alignment amongst the regional, bilateral and international trading agreements to which Kenya is a signatory, the very low level of domestication of regional and multilateral agreements, the proliferation of national law based Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and the lack of a coherent national trade facilitating system amongst others. The overall objective of the Regional Integration Policy is to enhance Kenya’s ability to maximize on the opportunities in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) it participates in, and to enable Kenya’s ability to better integrate into the global economy. The regional integration policy addresses the following eleven strategic intervention areas...