Former FDC President and four time Presidential candidate, Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye, was in Bushenyi district over the weekend drumming support for, according to the media, the formation of a new political party after jumping ship from his mother party now torn between the Katonga and Najjanankumbi factions, with the latter headed by Eng. Amuriat Oboi and Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi.
The Bushenyi event went without incident as we dully put in place measures to make that possible and I thank all the stakeholders for keeping it peaceful.
One issue which Dr. Besigye touched on was the fluctuation of tea prices which, since last year, has threatened livelihoods of thousands of our people. As the leadership, we held engagements locally to try and salvage the situation at a time farmers were threatening to uproot their plantations. The disrict council held sessions on the matter; our MPs, notably Mbwatekamwa Gaffa (Igara WestWest) and Katusiime Annet Mugisha (District Woman MP) spoke out in Parliament, alogside other MPs from tea growing areas like Ephraim Biraaro (Buhweju West) when Parliament took up the matter. I personally wrote a sprcecial memo to the Presidency through my line mijitnister , Milly Babalanda, as other stakeholders like the NRM District Chairman, Hasan Basajjabalaba, worked through other channels like the Prime Minister’s office and the Presidential Advisor on Public Relations, Mary Karooro Okurut, engaged in media advocacy around the issue. We did all it could take to communicate to the centre to intervene and as we talk, the hearts and minds of tea farmers and other industry players are settling.
The most recent development in line with addressing the economic slump caused by a slip in tea prices is that Cabinet agreed on and passed a raft of measures to bring the sector back at par.
Among the measures first communicated by the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Dr. Chris Baryomunsi at the Uganda Media Center in Kampala and later by the Minister of Local Government, Raphael Magyezi, during Women’s Day celebrations for Bushenyi at St. Kaggwa grounds on March 15, 2024. Government is to introduce a fertiliser revolving fund along with tax waivers to struggling factories across the country. Factories, some of which I have personally visited to assess their vulnerability, have been working in losses and heaving under operational costs, including salaries for workers some of whom have been in protest mode.
Additionally, Government is to establish a tea policy to regulate the sector, as it is with coffee which also has an Authority to oversee it.
Another measure proposed by Government is to set up a local auction market for our tea and quit the Mombasa auction market where all teas from the region are sold for export. Uganda will get more value for its crop under this arrangement unlike the old one where our tea has been going unbranded, thus obscuring the world sought-after unique Ugandan aroma.
The meeting in which these measures were decided on was presided over by President Yoweri Museveni himself at State House, Entebbe, on Monday, March 4, 2024. In all this, iI don’t see any caucusing anywhere intended to sabotage the sector, rather multilevel cooperation and coordination to resolve its problems.
It was, therefore, surprising to hear Dr. Besigye accusing Government of deliberately causing the tea price crisis, ostensibly in a bid to impoverish Ugandans- so as to buy them at a cost during elections. If ever there was politicisation of an issue, this is one case! A purely economic crisis caused by exogenous factors such as the wars in Ukraine-Russia (where fertilisers are made, and which caused prices to spike) and Sudan, and farm gate mistakes such as poor leaf picking habits where farmers violate the two leaves and a bud rule, was turned into a political tool. This isn’t fair and does little to contribute solutions to the sector’s challenges.
On the ground, we have been sensitising farmers and sector players to stick to quality and best garden practices as Government attends to policy issues as well as bringing in support to stabilise the sector until full recovery. I don’t see how Government would want the tea sector to fail when it brings in lots of revenue and supports uncountable farmers and supports so many livelihoods. Over the years, Uganda has been earning more than $76m from tea exports annually on average, making it the fourth largest agricultural export after coffee, maize and fish.
How come coffee prices have been going up of recent? Didn’t Government target that area, too? Why tea only when it’s not the highest revenue earner?
Again, why would Government make the interventions named above if the motive is to destroy the sector and keep Ugandans poor?
In my view, the tea sector crisis was a result of mostly uncontrollable factors but provides us an opportunity to plan better for future challenges. It’s not good to mislead our people and divert them from doing their own duty of ensuring crop quality and harvest practices which is the area we have control over. I will soon lead a fresh campaign to enforce this because without a good quality product, other interventions by Government will go to waste.
On Parish Development Model (PDM), I request Dr. Besigye to return to Bushenyi and I take him on a tour of the turnaround stories of beneficiaries. PDM is changing lives, one at a time!
The writer is the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Bushenyi
Email: 777aronda777@gmail.com
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