Parliament fails to ratify Kenya-UK Economic Partnership Agreement

The National Assembly has failed to ratify the Economic Partnership Agreement between Kenya and the United Kingdom.

The debate was expected on Thursday afternoon but the Speaker ordered the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry and Co-operatives to work on and table a supplementary report on the deal.

Ahead of the debate civil society groups had raised concerns on what they termed as the rush to ratify the agreement arguing that its full impact on Kenya had not been assessed.

The deal was signed last year in December and both the Kenyan parliament and that of the United Kingdom are expected to ratify it.

The government has lauded the deal indicating that it will allow duty free and quota free access of exports from Kenya into the UK, while on the other hand UK goods will be subjected to progressive and graduation duty and quota reduction over a period of 25 years.

The deal was signed in London by International Trade Minister Ranil Jayawardena and Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Trade, Minister Betty Maina.