Uhuru hits back at Opposition over Uganda trade pacts

President Uhuru Kenyatta has hit back at the Opposition for criticising his administration’s sugar and meat trade deals with Uganda, claiming that the opening of the local market to cheaper imports from the country is more cost-effective than sourcing it from overseas markets such as Brazil.

The Head of State was responding to the opposition’s claims that the trade deal would open floodgates of cheaper sugar through the two countries’ common border and kill struggling local millers.

READ: Raila faults Uganda sugar imports deal

Mr Kenyatta said the decision to relax import rules on Ugandan sugar fits within the rallying call for increased intra-Africa trade by removing non-tariff barriers.

“The free movement of African people, and their goods, uninhibited throughout the continent will open new horizons for investment and entrepreneurship,” Mr Kenyatta said yesterday while closing the Eastern Africa Regional Pan-African Congress meeting in Nairobi.

“Tanzanians should be able to easily buy Togolese fabric, Nigerians to enjoy Kenyan milk products, and Ivorians to enjoy Ugandan matoke,” he said. Traders say sugar from Uganda, which has surplus production, is on average Sh30 cheaper per kilo than Kenya’s.

Mr Kenyatta last weekend signed trade deals with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, during his visit to Kampala, allowing cheaper Ugandan sugar into Kenya to plug shortfalls.

The Opposition, led by Cord leader Raila Odinga, protested saying the imports would flood the market and kill local millers. The deals also cleared the way for Kenyan traders to export beef and related products to Uganda under similar terms.

Mr Kenyatta said that it was also in the spirit of Pan-Africanism to buy sugar from neighbouring Uganda with which Kenya as opposed to overseas markets.

He said that the deals would boost bilateral trade with Uganda which is the largest destination market for Kenyan goods.

Uganda bought Sh60.7 billion worth of goods from Kenya last year compared to Sh17.5 billion it exported to Kenya, according to official data.

Kenya has had a near diplomatic stand-off with Kampala over sugar import controls placed on Ugandan traders.

The Kenyan authorities have maintained that Ugandan traders were importing sugar cheaply for repackaging and exporting to lucrative markets such as Kenya.