Entebbe: Kenya's deputy president DP William Ruto held talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at State House in Entebbe, Uganda. The deliberations focused on trade between Kenya and Uganda as well as integration issues in East Africa. The leaders enumerated the need to create a more favourable environment to enhance commerce between the two countries and other countries in the region. Later, the two leaders flew to Eastern Uganda to launch the 150-km Kapchorwa -Suam road. The road will connect Kenya and Uganda.
Ruto said the road will increase investment and trade between the two countries as well as ease the movement of people. Funded by Kenya, Uganda and the African Development Bank, the road is 77 km long on the Kenyan side and 73 km on the Ugandan side. President Museveni said the road would improve access and connectivity between the two countries and stimulate cross-border business.
The DP pointed out that the leadership of President Uhuru Kenyatta and President Museveni made it possible for citizens of the two countries to work together. Ruto thanked the AfDB for financing roads in the region. He also asked the local community to shun consumption of local brews and invest in the education of their children. Museveni thanked the Kenyan government for being “true neighbours” who valued trade partnership.
He said the tarmacking of the Kapchorwa-Suam road would improve security along the Kenya-Uganda border. He asked locals to take advantage of the improved infrastructure and engage in income-generating activities.
Uganda exports more goods to Kenya
Latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya shows that Uganda has for the first time exported more goods to Kenya than it imported in the five months leading to May due to increased maize exports. In a breakfast meeting with the private sector members from Uganda in Kampala, the DP said trade must drive relations and politics between countries. “Nationalism without pan-africanism is not beneficial. We live in a world that is full of challenges, especially youth unemployment and poverty. All these must be tackled head on by creating opportunities that would drive them out and Commerce is the way to make it right,” he said.
Ruto told the meeting that despite the challenges facing the East African Community, good progress was being made. He challenged his fellow leaders to work “progressively and consistently” to put the five-member trading bloc almost at par with the thriving Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area, Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union. Ruto said Africa should take advantage of the current wave of protectionism to fine-tune its trading blocs to give it more muscles in trade negotiations.
