At a meeting held at Kampala Serena on Sunday, Ugandan officials and sugar industry players from the private sector complained that Kenya was blocking access to its lucrative sugar market.

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, who led the Kenyan delegation to the meeting, blamed the situation on changes in the sector.

She said the Kenya Sugar Board had morphed into a new agricultural organisation — the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority.

“There was a technical problem in the processing of permits but I would want to assure the Ugandan Government and the private sector that the issue has been dealt with.”

“We will meet in Nairobi in the coming days to lay down long-term solutions so that this problem does not recur,” she told the audience mainly from the Uganda Manufacturers Association.

It was not the first time the lobby group was voicing concern. Ugandans had previously complained that despite the East African Community Common Market Protocol, Kenya is not allowing Ugandan sugar into its territory.

Kenya exports about $700 million (Sh70 billion) worth of goods to Uganda, but it buys only Sh18 billion from the same country.

Last year, Ugandan traders petitioned their government to impose similar restrictions in the name of balance of trade. The traders charged that Uganda should start doing more business at the Port of Dar es Salaam than Mombasa until Nairobi behaves.

UNDER PRESSURE

So, when President Uhuru Kenyatta was in Uganda for a three-day State visit early this week, he was under pressure to respond to the criticism.

“Kenya and Uganda as each other’s leading trade and investment partners are at the heart of this integration,” he told the Ugandan Parliament on Monday.

“We understand that the only way to catch up with the ‘Asian Tigers’ is to produce more goods and services that are globally competitive, to trade more regionally, and to access exponentially greater amounts of investment,” he said.

Ms Mohamed had earlier told the Ugandans that Kenya would grant traders permits to start exporting sugar.

But what is the situation?

Kenya and Uganda belong to the East African Community, so do Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

In July 2010, the community enforced the Common Markets Protocol after all the members ratified it.

The protocol allows four “freedoms” namely free movement of goods, labour; services; and capital, to boost trade and investments, but provides certain barriers.

Despite Kenya producing nearly 210,000 tonnes of sugar less than the national demand (860,000), the country’s policy is to protect local millers until they are able to compete.

Source: Nation

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