Museveni, Ruto hold talks over trade and security

The Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odongo, welcomed Ruto, who arrived at the Entebbe International Airport on the afternoon of Sunday, August 13, 2023.

The two East African leaders, according to the Presidential Press Unit, discussed bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.

Ruto also confirmed on his official Twitter handle that they (him and Museveni) discussed "matters of mutual interest, especially on trade, security, and agriculture," and also affirmed that "Kenya and Uganda have a firm partnership based on decades of East African brotherhood, strong cooperation, and consistent engagement."

It should be noted that both Uganda and Kenya have been at loggerheads over the importation of Ugandan goods such as milk and maize flour, among others.

In 2018, Uganda's milk exports totaled $131 million. 74% of that ($96 million) was exported to Kenya, according to data from the United Nations Comtrade.

In 2019, Uganda’s exported dairy products were worth $135.9 million, according to Ugandan government statistics.

That figure is triple what the country earned in 2015 ($45 million). Milk production also increased to 2.7 billion litres in 2019 from 2.08 billion litres in 2015.

But by 2018, Kenya began to poke holes in the cheap imports of Uganda’s milk in an effort to protect the local market. Kenya first raised doubts about Uganda’s milk production capacity, but that was debunked through a fact-finding mission in 2019.

Technocrats then proposed a 16% levy on Ugandan milk to ensure it would be expensive in the Kenyan market, but President Uhuru Kenyatta rejected the proposal. Soon after, a ban on Ugandan milk was imposed in 2020.

The two countries have also been actively engaged in the peacekeeping mission in war-torn Somalia.