Maize saga: Govt to meet owners of silos
Maize dealers stuck with the produce after Kenya imposed a ban on importation of the cereal from Uganda on March 9. PHOTO |
DAVID AWORI
What you need to know:
- Government says it may consider a supplementary budget to buy the maize from the traders if it decides to compensate the traders.
The First Deputy Prime Minister, Gen Moses Ali, has told Parliament that there is no government decision to compensate traders whose maize was rejected by Kenya.
He said Cabinet will meet owners of maize silos to discuss how to handle the saga.
“We have organised a meeting on Friday (tomorrow) to discuss this matter of private silos handlers to discuss how maize can be handled. These traders, whose maize (trucks) are now stranded, will be subject of discussion on Friday,” Gen Ali said on Tuesday.
On March 5, Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority banned Uganda’s maize exports on claims of containing high levels of mycotoxins.
The ban sparked uporoar with MPs suggesting that government should retaliate with a similar move on agricultural products from Kenya.
Gen Ali said a Cabinet sitting on Monday did not discuss the compensation for the traders.
He also said government will consider seeking a supplementary budget to buy the maize from traders if compensation is agreed on in the meeting.
He was responding to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga who raised fears that Ugandan maize may not find market in any other country following the ban by Kenya.
“How are you going to find market elsewhere now that signals have gone all over [the world] that Ugandan maize cannot be sold? I don’t know whether the government can bring a supplementary budget to be able to buy this maize,” Ms Kadaga asked.
Gen Ali said the government will intensify efforts to find market for the maize in other neighbouring countries, including expanding to the bigger market of Africa through the African Continental Free Trade Areas (AfCTA)”
The AfCFTA is the African continent’s integration initiative embedded in Agenda 2063 of the African Union, whose main objective is to create a single continental market for goods and services with free movement of people and investments, thus expanding intra-African trade, enhancing competitiveness and supporting economic transformation in Africa.
Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda are among the 36 countries which have so far ratified the AfCTA that was launched on July 7, 2019 at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the AU assembly in Niamey, Niger.
Gen Ali said Cabinet also resolved that there be held a joint inter-ministerial meeting with Kenya to discuss the issue of maize with non-tariff barriers being considered.
Among the measures to curb contamination in the cereals, the government will encourage consolidated marketing and storage of maize at the parish level.
Regarding doubts on whether the Ugandan maize was banned as a result of contamination or Kenya was protecting its own market for the locally produced maize, the First Deputy Prime Minister said government plans to carry out its own investigation to determine the veracity of the allegation.
PROGRESS
Mr Julius Maganda, the State Minister for East African Community Affairs, said after engagements, Kenya has started allowing in some of the cleared trucks but the process is likely to return to normalcy by the end of the month. He also indicated that Kenya did not use the laid out procedures under the EAC protocols which require them to officially report to a country whose product is affected before banning it.
