Written by
Faridah N Kulumba
Over two weeks ago Ugandan authorities headed by Uganda People’s Defence Forces Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) impounded close to 20 tonnes of allegedly immature fish as goods in transit from Kenya to Democratic Republic of Congo. is a Cold Trade war taking place between the two countries?
After securing a court order to break the seals on the trucks, officials from the fisheries directorate, FPU and URA confirmed on Friday that the four trucks had carried large volumes of immature fish that were caught from within Uganda and then repacked in Kenya for export to DR Congo, The Independent reported.
Uganda impounded Kenyan Trucks of Fish ; Uganda’s side of story
According to the commissioner Fisheries Control, Regulation and Quality Assurance at the agriculture ministry Mr Tom Mukasa Bukenya, the trucks had over 5 tonnes of salted and smoked immature fish, mainly Nile Perch and Tilapia caught from Lake Kyoga, not Turkana as the drivers had claimed when the army intercepted the trucks at Malaba border.
Uganda insists that these tonnes of fish are from Uganda due to the fact that the trucks which were carrying them are registered in Uganda, although the owners of the fish consignments are still at large.
Uganda exports fish to the region, Europe. Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, After the FPU deployment on lakes, fish exports rose from 14,248 tonnes valued at US$136 in 2017 to 20,364 tonnes worth US$153 in 2018.
Kenyan’s Claims and protest
On Friday businesses came to a halt at Busia border when fishmongers from Busia county in Kenya rose up in arms protesting the impounding of their fish.
Kenyan fishmongers claimed that no Ugandan authorities came up to give them clear information as to why their fish were impounded. When the Kenyan national chairperson of cross border Godfrey Ongwabe, followed up on the matter by writing to the Ugandan authorities asking them to release their consignments and also reminding them that there is no reason to impound goods in transit from another country, they simply told him that the fish were impounded because they were immature and lacked a clear place of origin.
Cold Trade War
Uganda and Kenya row over impounded fish is a symptom of bigger underlying issues. A meeting has flopped between Ugandan Minister for fisheries Hellen Adoa and owners of the impounded fish, who are up to now anonymous, who failed to show up. The fish owners decided to settle the matter in the court of law challenging the government of Uganda’s action, but Uganda insists they are on the side of the law according to Minister Adoa.
This is not the first time the two neighbouring countries are having trade issues, and in March this year Kenya’s Director General of Agriculture and Food Authority Kello Harsama wrote a memo directing the Commissioner of Customs Pamela Ahago to suspend any exports of maize into Kenya from Uganda, claiming that the test results for maize imported from Uganda and Tanzania revealed high levels of mycotoxins that are consistently beyond safety limits.
