Kenyan officials have reached out to their Ugandan counterparts to address the harassment of Kenyan business people.
Busia county commissioner Sam Ojwang said he is engaging the Ugandan administration in Busia, Uganda, to help traders doing business across the border.
Ojwang on Tuesday said the administration in Uganda has expressed willingness to stop the harassment of Kenyan traders in the landlocked country.
He said more engagements would be conducted until the problem is permanently addressed.
“That is an issue that we are discussing with our colleagues from Uganda because when Ugandans cross the border to do business in Kenya, nobody harasses them,” Ojwang said.
“So, the same should apply to Kenyans who do business on the Ugandan side of the border.”
In March, the Ugandan government agreed to compensate Kenyan traders who lost fish after their export consignment destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo was confiscated last year.
The compensation was meant to quell wrangles between Kenyan traders and Ugandan authorities who the traders had accused of always harassing them and seizing their goods.
Fisheries, Aquaculture and Blue Economy PS Francis Owino said the agreement was struck following intensive negotiations involving delegations from the two countries between March 1 and 4.
Ojwang said the proposed Jumuia cross-border market will address the challenges faced by Kenyan traders.
The market will be built on 40 acres in Busia.
Ojwang said Kenyans cross the border to do business in Uganda because of insufficient space on the Kenyan side.
“The main agenda here is to boost business on the Kenyan side of the border. We all know that there is a lot of business activity on the Ugandan side but when you come to the Kenyan side business is not running as expected,” Ojwang said.
“One of the critical components of this Jumuia Cross-Border market is to target small and medium enterprises through the government's bottom-up approach because many Kenyans are small-scale traders. When we give them the opportunity to do business, then the bottom-up approach as a policy of the government will be realised.”
In March, Owino hosted his Ugandan counterpart David Kasura for four days in Busia and Turkana to resolve Kenyan fish exporters’ complaints of harassment by Ugandan authorities.
It was resolved that Kenya's Foreign Affairs ministry would deposit a demand notice to Uganda for processing the request for compensation.
The resolution came four months after Kenyan traders complained of losing fish worth Sh50 million after the dried export product was confiscated by Ugandan military manning the Uganda-DR Congo border.
The county commissioner also said the Interior ministry would avail land in Sofia and Marachi in Busia town to facilitate the expansion of the One Stop Border Post.
The project will decongest the Busia-Kisumu highway as cargo trucks will be diverted to Sofia and Marachi where they would be cleared to cross into Uganda.
“This will be done so that we give the Kenya Revenue Authority space to facilitate the removal of cargo trucks along the highway," Owino said.
He said plans are underway to rehabilitate the Busia-Kisumu highway to make it a dual road.
(edited by Amol Awuor)