This archive report was first published on 20 October 2021.
Trade tensions between Kenya and Uganda have been a persistent issue, with the two countries struggling to find a lasting breakthrough.
As part of efforts to ease these tensions, officials from Kenya are set to visit Uganda in November to verify claims that sugar and milk imported from the landlocked neighbour originate from third-party countries.
Uganda has denied these claims, with the High Commissioner to Kenya and the Seychelles, Hassan Wasswa Galiwango, stating that the country is capable of producing excess milk for export.
"Uganda is supposed to export milk to Kenya but there is a problem that will be resolved soon. We have invited the government of Kenya to send a delegation to inspect Uganda milk factories, to ascertain Uganda's capacity to produce [exportable] excess," she said during Uganda's Week in Nairobi.
The verification mission is a follow-up to a deal between the two countries that allowed Uganda to export surplus sugar into Kenya three years ago. However, Nairobi delayed the implementation until late last year.
Kenya's Trade Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina and her Ugandan counterpart had agreed in April that Uganda would export 90,000 tonnes of sugar to Kenya as soon as the verification mission was completed.
