Is The East African Community (EAC) Ready For A Customs Union? Or Is EAC Integration Nearing Collapse? Lessons From Kenya -Uganda Milk Dispute

Background

In his recent speech Kenya’s president gave certain directions regarding agriculture and the speech read in part as follows;

“ In the agricultural sector, our farmers have continued to get high milk yields. However due to the excess supply , they are receiving very low prices for their milk. The situation has been exacerbated by the incursion of powdered milk which is smuggled into Kenya from outside our Eastern Africa Region. This has caused financial hardship to dairy farmers. As part of my intent and pledge to the milk farmers , I have given three practical directives:

One, I have directed the National Treasury to release 500 million shillings to the new KCC to purchase excess milk to convert it into powder milk for future use.

Two I have directed the National Treasury to release further 575 million shillings to new KCC for two milk plants , one…