The government has said that it has not received official communication from Uganda about the ban on raw and processed Kenyan agricultural products.
Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina however said that the government would reach out to Uganda so as to end the trade wrangles.
“We are awaiting a formal communication from Uganda on that decision and we will respond because there is no intention to destabilise the bilateral trade relationship,” she stated.
She further said that there was no cause for alarm since relevant authorities were on the matter.
Uganda announced plans to ban a number of Kenyan products from its market within a short period of time.
”We have been too patient. In the past, we have not reciprocated, but now we are going to. This has gone on for too long and within a short time they too will understand what we are going through,” Uganda’s minister for East African Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga was quoted by the Monitor.
The trade dispute between the two countries dates to 2019 when Kenya stopped importing Uganda’s Lato milk.
Kenya further banned importation of Ugandan sugar in June 2020 yet the agreement earlier was to increase importation.
Uganda had introduced discriminative excise duties under the Excise Duty Amendment Act 2017.
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