EAC Customs Management Act, 2004

What the Act is

The Act is a law of the East African Community, not of one country. The Protocol for the Establishment of the EAC Customs Union was signed in Arusha on 2 March 2004 ⁷. The Act was assented to on 31 December 2004 and is numbered No. 1 of 2005 ¹.

Section 1(3) says the Act starts on a date the Council appoints. The 2009 revised edition printed by the Government Printer in Nairobi gives 1 January 2005 in its header ¹. That edition includes amendments up to 8 December 2008 ¹. The Kenya Revenue Authority keeps a revised edition dated 2020 in its iKESRA repository ⁴.

Section 3 gives the regional Directorate of Customs the job of starting policy on customs and related trade matters. It works under the general direction of the Council (section 4) ¹. Section 5 says each Partner State appoints a Commissioner under its own law. The Commissioner is responsible for the management and control of customs, including the collection of and accounting for customs revenue ¹.

The 21 Parts

The 2009 revised edition is split into 21 Parts ¹.

• I Preliminary, II Administration, III Importation, IV Warehousing, V Exportation ¹
• VI Departure and clearance of aircraft and vessels, VII Post, VIII Coastwise carriage and transfer of goods ¹
• IX Sureties, X Duties, XI Customs agents, XII Prevention of smuggling ¹
• XIII Manufacturing under bond, XIV Export processing zones and freeports, XV Inward and outward processing ¹
• XVI Information technology, XVII Offences, penalties, forfeitures and seizures ¹
• XVIII Settlement of cases by the Commissioner, XIX Legal proceedings, XX Appeals, XXI Miscellaneous ¹

Sections traders meet most

The 2019 amendment

The EAC repository record for the East African Community Customs Management (Amendment) Act, 2019 gives the date of assent as 22 April 2017 and the date of commencement as 15 November 2019 ². It amends sections 14, 34, 51, 57, 87, 107 and 243 and inserts new sections 248A and 248B ².

The 2025 amendment

The East African Community Customs Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 was assented to on 30 November 2024. It came into force on 26 September 2025 and was published in EAC Gazette No. 27 of that date as Act Supplement No. 1 ³. Its sections 2 to 30 amend the principal Act ³.

• A new section 5(3A) lets a Commissioner deploy officers at the first point or port of entry in another Partner State ³
• A new section 114A limits duty-exempt goods to their approved use. Misuse is an offence with up to three years in prison or a fine of up to twenty thousand dollars ³
• Section 124 is replaced. No duty is charged where the customs value is fifty dollars or less ³
• A new section 140A lets the Council waive duty for a time on goods in short supply. A waiver cannot run beyond one year ³
• The penalty in section 203 rises from ten thousand dollars to twenty thousand dollars or fifty percent of the dutiable value, whichever is higher ³
• Section 251 gains regulation powers on risk management, trade facilitation measures and the single customs territory ³

How the Act reaches traders

Revenue authorities apply the Act through national notices. The Kenya Revenue Authority's notice of 21 September 2026 on customs agent licences for 2027 cites section 145 of the Act and Regulations 149 to 152 of the EAC Customs Management Regulations, 2010 ⁶. The EAC customs agent page says agents must be authorised in writing by the owner of the goods, and that the owner and the agent can both be prosecuted for unlawful acts the agent does for the owner ⁵.