Make public Kenya-Uganda trade agreements for transparency and accountability

*President Uhuru Kenyatta with Uganda President Yoweri Museveni PHOTO: COURTESY*

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his counterpart Yoweri Kaguta Museveni have signed various deals that are postulated to steer economic growth between the Kenya and Uganda. The three day visit that ended on Monday saw Kenya signing the infamous non-tariff barriers that have been seen to undermine integration and growth of Kenya internal market.

Another good deal that was signed was to construct the Sh400 billion pipeline that will transport oil from Albertine to Lokichar in Turkana County and this will revolutionize the oil and transport industry a great deal.

Nonetheless, it’s prudent for the government to make the trade agreement between the two countries public. This is because, Kenyans need to know the nitty gritty of the agreement so as to position themselves and leverage the deal.

Making it public will also allow Kenyans to scrutinize whether the deal was meant to benefit a few or it was meant to promote genuine business. Already, some Kenyans have started grumbling. And it’s their right to do so because the government must go beyond personal benefits to the benefit of all Kenyans. The signing of sugar deal that allows cheap sugar to be imported into the Kenyan soil must be an ill-advised deal! Kenyans were short-changed here!

It’s a mockery to sugar farmers in the western region. Despite government’s pumping Sh1 billion to revive Mumias Company, the same government seems to have eroded the same efforts by allowing other cheap players into the already crippling market. Equally disturbing is the export of beef and dairy products.

This is ironical in that consumption of the same in Kenya was lacking! Truth be told: non-tariff agreements among many other agreements done were meant to benefit Kenyans but it’s prudent also to make this deals public for scrutiny and positioning to business.