DRC now Kenya’s fastest-growing EAC export market

DN COAST TRUCKS CORRIDOR 30

Trucks queue as they get to the Mariakani Weighbridge. File | Nation Media Group

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has overtaken Uganda to become Kenya’s fastest-growing export market within the East African Community bloc, new data shows, despite frosty diplomatic relations between Nairobi and Kinshasa.

Kenya’s exports to the DRC jumped by more than half (56.04 percent) to Ksh8.62 billion ($66 million at current exchange rates) in the first three months of the year, according to the latest official data, the biggest year-on-year growth in over a decade.