Kenya-Uganda trade row costly and unnecessary

It is disturbing that Uganda has been forced to ban exports of Kenya’s agricultural products in a retaliatory move against the latter’s intransigence to resolve a trade dispute that for the past two years has seen Kenya block the importation of products from Uganda.

It is not clear yet what products from Kenya will be targeted but the Uganda Cabinet agreed in principle to the proposal that a ban is imposed and the relevant ministry will now identify what those products will be. Key agricultural exports to Uganda from Kenya include palm oil, which fetched a significant Sh7.2 billion last year, sorghum (Sh1.4 billion), vegetables (Sh311 million) and legumes (Sh200 million).

In taking that decision, that country’s minister for East African Affairs, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, said the trade dispute had been outstanding for two years, and that their patience had run out. The hostilities between the two East African Community states that are signatories to the Customs Union Protocol whose intent, ironically, is to create a single customs union, began in December 2019, when Kenya stopped importing Ugandan milk, claiming that it was of dodgy quality.

In July 2020, Kenya imposed a ban on Ugandan sugar, against an earlier agreement that it will actually allow more quantities of sugar to be imported into the Kenyan market. Kenya also stopped all chicken, meat and egg imports on grounds that it needed to support its “producers to recover from disruptions in their livestock enterprises occasioned by Covid-19”.

While it is fundamental that Kenyan authorities protect its people against sub-standard imports, it is baffling that a trade dispute that on the face of it appears so innocuous has been allowed to drag on for so long that it now seriously threatens trade with a key partner. Kenya is Uganda’s biggest trade partner. Its exports to Uganda in 2020 amounted to Sh76.1 billion, while Uganda exported goods worth Sh52.6 billion to Kenya during the same period.

We should be doing everything to encourage even closer trading relations. But we are not, and in the process are allowing easily removable non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to stand in the way of closer regional cooperation and mutual growth. The numbers are confirming this. Statistics from Kenya’s Central Bank indicate that the value of imports from Uganda dropped 34 per cent in eight months to August this year. This is as a direct result of trade wars between the two countries.

It is evident that this matter is not receiving the urgency it deserves. A visit to Kampala by a Kenyan delegation to discuss the matter that was planned for November did not take place because some members were not ready! It was moved to this month but there has been no reports that it will yet happen. And Kenya must have foreseen last Monday’s decision because it is not new – President Yoweri Museveni is the one that has been forestalling his Cabinet, presumably because he did not consider a reciprocal ban the ideal solution.

It is not impossible to resolve these disputes. When Tanzania’s President Samia Hassan visited Kenya in May this year, she unlocked opportunities that had been stymied by the frosty relationship that existed between the two countries during the presidency of her predecessor, the late John Pombe Magufuli. As a result of that visit, the flow of goods between the two countries has grown significantly, a lot of it in favour of Tanzania.

During his visit to Tanzania two weeks ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his host noted that as a result of improved relations following her Nairobi visit, the two countries had resolved 46 out of 64 NTBs that were hampering trade and investment.

As a result, Kenya has so far imported goods and services worth more than Sh49 billion, up from Sh43.4 billion in 2020. This trend will definitely continue once the remaining 18 NTBs are resolved.

NTBs have been the bane of regional trade and will remain an obstacle until the spirit of regional and continental blocs translates into facilitative national policies and regulations. 

Talk of robust food systems that African governments committed to during the UN Food Systems Summit and other continental forums like the Alliance for Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) will remain idle talk if trade and food corridors within the continent do not remain open and left to function smoothly. This was a reality powerfully reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic when borders were shut.

Trade tiffs like the one between Kenya and Uganda must not be left to fester because of the closeness between the two countries. 

The writer is a former editor-in-chief of the Nation Media Group and is now consulting. [email protected], @tmshindi