Kampala, Uganda | URN | Uganda will not retaliate against Kenya over the ongoing trade wars, President Yoweri Museveni has said. He dismissed the calls for retaliation in his televised address on Sunday 14, March 2021 evening, saying it does not offer a long-lasting solution to the problem.
His remarks come at the backdrop of a heated row between the two East African Countries over’s Kenya’s ban on the importation of Uganda’s maize and poultry products. Kenya slapped a ban on the importation of Uganda’s maize last week on the grounds, it contains high levels of Aflatoxins beyond the permitted limited.
However, Kenya has since lifted the maize ban. The Kenyan government has overtime imposed non-tariff restrictions on other Ugandan commodities suck as milk, eggs, and sugarcane. Recently, the Ugandan parliament expressed displeasure with the fact that Ugandan supermarkets are flooded with Kenyan products yet the Ugandan government remains silent when Kenya bans Ugandan products.
However, during the Sunday 14th evening national address, President Museveni noted that the issue of banned commodities should not take the stage, saying Ugandans and other citizens in the region need to focus on the larger picture of integration.
Uganda produce dealers reportedly lost Shillings 5 billion just three days following the ban as the Kenyan authorities returned over 70,000 metric tons of maize, the producers had exported to the neighbouring country.
However, Mr Museveni notes that the current situation can be resolved with patience, focus, and negotiations rather than excitement by a section of politicians who want to be seen talking on television even when they are speaking nothing.
He adds that although integration might not be the solution to the challenge of banned commodities, the problem will never arise if integration succeeds.
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To back his argument, the president reminded Ugandans, about how much foreign exchange the country is fetching from trade with Kenya compared to the 1980s before they took the first step towards the revival of regional cooperation.
Mr Museveni explained that sometime in 1986, Ugandans wanted the government to close their borders with Kenya but he took a bold decision of not interfering with trade, a decision he says has since benefited Uganda.
Mr Museveni noted that there is a lot that needs to be done to improve the quality of Ugandan products. He says that apart from Kenya, countries like Algeria and Iran wanted to import Ugandan milk and maize but the deal failed due to poor quality products.
