The Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Industry), Hon. David Bahati has said that government will make a statement on the steps being taken to mitigate possible spillover effects of the demonstrations in Kenya.
Kenyans took to the streets on Monday, 20 March 2023 protesting the country’s cost of living.
“I want to request that we make a statement tomorrow about what is happening in our borders and the actions we are going to take,” Bahati said.
His response was prompted by a matter of national importance raised by Busia Municipality Member of Parliament, Hon. Geoffrey Macho during the plenary sitting on 22 March 2023.
Macho said that the heavy deployment at the Uganda-Kenya border as a result of the demonstrations has affected trade and sources of livelihood of the communities living around the border.
“It is now four days and our people are not crossing because we have clans that belong to both countries but they cannot even get water,” said Macho.
He called on the East African leaders to intervene and ensure stability is restored in the region.
“The major principal for East African Federation is stability and peace which build a major objective of East African cooperation of free movement of goods and services,” Macho added.
Hon. Solomon Silwany (NRM, Bukooli County Central) said that the strike in Kenya has affected residents of Bugiri District as well with Ugandan goods not allowed into Kenya.
“All Ugandans who are traveling to Kenya with goods are stuck. It is a very serious crisis. We need government to communicate the proposals they have before the situation gets worse,” said Silwany.
Hon. Asinansi Nyakato (FDC, Hoima City) added that fuel trucks have also been denied entry into Uganda and warned of a recurrence of the fuel crisis.
“It is now three days; the trucks have been parked meaning that the challenge we had last year of a fuel crisis might happen again,” she said.
The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Mathias Mpuuga said that government should inform the country of its import capacity.
“How many months can we sustain the economy in the face of import crisis? We know you have depleted our reserves and now we have a crisis with one of our major trading partners,” said Mpuuga.
