Uganda threatens to ban Kenyan products in latest trade row
Uganda’s Agriculture Minister Frank Tumwebaze suggests his country could ban some Kenyan products from its market, in what is the latest chapter of a trade row and cooling relations between the two East African countries.
Tumwebaze, in a series of rants via Twitter in which he tagged his Kenyan counterpart Peter Munya, indicated Ugandans are ‘not happy’ with the way Nairobi was consistently barring Ugandan sugar from its market.
“Wauganda hawafurahii,” he wrote.
Comrade Hon @PeterMunya we need a honest conversation about these trade restrictions from ur side. Wauganda hawafurahi!
Don't make this whole idea of @jumuiya doubtable. Kenya imports about 450,000 tonnes of sugar. If your sugar board ( trade police) allowed uganda to export..
— Frank K Tumwebaze,MP : Psalms 124 : 1-8 (@FrankTumwebazek) September 1, 2021
Tumwebaze emphasized that Nairobi and Kampala need an ‘honest’ conversation on trade, while even suggesting that Kenyan plastics could be the first to be barred from Kampala.
…to Kenya its 150,000 tonnes still your sugar import demand would remain unmet. So nothing explains the restrictions on Uganda. Shld we also start a board to restrict/give permits to Kenyan margarine & plastics? Yes, we could check on their standards too! #Waugandahawafurahi
— Frank K Tumwebaze,MP : Psalms 124 : 1-8 (@FrankTumwebazek) September 1, 2021
Munya is yet to directly respond to Tumwebaze via the social media platform, he’s suggested his main priority is to improve sugar production in Kenya.
Fact: Since the stabilization of prices for sugarcane, the production of sugar by #Farmers in the Kenyan sugar belt has gone up 40% since 2019.
Farmers have done their part and my Ministry is working hard to pushing the #SugarReforms pic.twitter.com/zgiHjydjgk
— CS Hon. Peter Munya (@PeterMunya) September 2, 2021
This is the second time in less than three months that Kenya and Uganda are locking horns over business-related matters. The other time, Ugandans MPs reacted with fury after Munya first stopped the importation of Ugandan maize, and then imposed strict conditions on the cereals entering Kenya.
And separately, Uganda and Kenya have also clashed over Deputy President William Ruto’s frequent trips to Kampala to meet President Yoweri Museveni.