Raila accuses Jubilee of using Uganda to kill sugar sector

Cord co-principal Mr Raila Odinga has said Uganda is being used by Jubilee administration to kill sugar industry.

Speaking in Busia and Nambale towns in western Kenya on Friday, Mr Odinga claimed that Uganda is being used as a transit point for cheap sugar imported from South America to destroy the already ailing local sugar industry.

He was speaking during the beginning of rallies called to persuade local sugar famers from the western region sugar belt to reject the imports following a controversial agreement between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni.

Mr Odinga claimed that the said agreement was meant to protect sugar barons and cartels involved in the business.

The Jubilee administration, he warned, will face the wrath of sugar cane farmers at the ballot box in the 2017 General Elections.

Accompanied by local leaders, Mr Odinga said was to address other rallies in Chemelil and Muhoroni. Next weekend, he will be in Bungoma and Kakamega counties.

Mr Odinga claimed the imported sugar is loaded on a holding ship in the Indian Ocean before it is brought to the port where it is cleared and given armed escort to Uganda from where it finds its way back into Kenya.

Uganda, he said, cannot satisfy its own domestic demand for sugar and it was ridiculous for the Jubilee leadership to deceive Kenyans that the country was in a position to supply Kenya with its surplus sugar.

Mr Odinga blamed problems of local production of the commodity on high taxation levied on the millers by the government.

JUBILEE HAS FAILED

According to him the grand coalition government, in which he was a co-principal, had formulated comprehensive sugar reforms which would have brought positive changes in the sector for the benefit of both farmers and the government.

The Jubilee government, however, he said, had failed to oversee full implementation of the reforms.

Reacting to Deputy President William Ruto’s charge that he (Odinga) is the ‘lord of poverty’, the Cord leader said: “Yes, am the lord of poverty because I speak for many poor people while he (Ruto) is the high priest of corruption because he speaks for wealthy people with ill-gotten wealth.”

The planned rallies are an outcome of the Opposition’s protest against a deal signed by the government to allow sugar imports into Kenya on August 11 when President Kenyatta visited Uganda.

However, the government has denied that any deal was signed.

On Thursday, Cabinet Secretaries Adan Mohamed (acting Agriculture) and Amina Mohammed (Foreign Affairs) explained that what was agreed was the removal of non-tariff barriers which were impeding trade between the two countries. 8029

The net effect was to make it easier for Ugandan exporters to acquire import licences to bring sugar into Kenya faster than it has been in the past. In turn, Kenya’s beef and dairy products will easily find their way to the Ugandan market.

Mr Odinga called on youth in the region to get ID cards and register as voters so that they could remove what he termed as ‘corrupt Jubilee government’ from power come 2017.

SNUBBED STATE HOUSE REQUEST

He accused the Jubilee administration of failing to fulfil the promises it made to Kenyans before it came to power.

“They promised to end corruption but now it is at its peak; they also promised to end tribalism but it’s now the order of the day; they also promised us free laptops for primary school pupils, where are they?” he asked.

ODM secretary general Mr Ababu Namwamba accused the Jubilee leadership of trying to emasculate Western region economically by deliberately sabotaging its economic lifeline.

Mr Namwamba said he lobbied Western MPs against going to State House after they were summoned a few days ago, after he realised that the aim was to compromise them in the wake of the sugar deal.

“We ask the president that next time if he visits Uganda, he should seek to bring us back Migingo….Anything else, no deal,” he said.

The party chairman, Mr John Mbadi, alleged that the successive governments since independence have killed major industries in the region which could have uplifted the living standards of locals.

“They killed the cotton industry; they also killed Pan Paper mills in Webuye and now they are finishing off the sugar industry in a bid to make us perpetual beggars,’’ said Mr Mbadi.

Busia Senator Amos Wako said there was a systematic plot to economically disable people in Opposition strongholds by the government.

Others who spoke at the rally were MPs Junet Mohammed (Suna East) , Anami Lisamla (Shinyalu), Gladys Wanga (Homabay Woman Rep), Busia governor Sospeter Ojaamong and his Siaya counterpart Cornel Rasanga among others.