Uganda loses $500 000 daily
2008-02-02 14:39
Kampala - Attacks by armed Kenyan mobs on truck convoys plying vital trade routes through the country is costing its neighbour Uganda more than $500 000 daily in lost revenues, say officials.
Gas prices had surged with shortages reported in many parts of the country, and a scarcity of raw materials, blamed on Kenya's postelection violence, had shut factories and caused layoffs over the border, officials said.
Uganda, a landlocked country, depended on its overland truck routes to transport goods to and from Kenya - its main trading partner - and overseas, via Kenyan ports.
"When Kenya sneezes, Uganda catches a cold," Ugandan MP Nandla Mafaba said in Parliament earlier this week.
'We have secured the main routes'
According to the Ugandan government, up to 15 Ugandan transit vehicles had been burned by rioters and many trucks had stopped operating the Uganda-Kenya route, threatening to cut the country off from the Kenyan port of Mombasa, which was the main route for Uganda's chief export item, coffee.
Government officials travelled to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for talks on Friday to try to stop the attacks on Ugandan trucks.
"We have secured the main routes on which the trucks pass with 24-hour (police) foot and mobile patrols," Kenyan government spokesperson Alfred Mutua said after the talks. "Any person who attempts to block a highway or attack any motorist will face the full force of the law."
Ugandan government spokesperson Fred Opolot said he was confident the Kenyan measures would be successful despite the uncertain atmosphere.
"It is very volatile," Opolot said. "But we in Uganda have absolute confidence that the Kenyans themselves will be able to resolve this situation."
In the violence that followed the disputed December 27 presidential elections, daily trade dwindled from more than $1.2m to some $480 000, said Allen Kagina, head of the Ugandan Revenue Authority.
- AP