CAS Ababu Namwamba Secures 2-year Sugar Safeguard Extension

Foreign Affairs Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Ababu Namwamba on Monday managed to strike a sugar deal with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trading bloc. 

While on an official visit to Zambia, Namwamba secured a two-year extension on the sugar safeguard Kenya currently enjoys.

According to details of the deal, Kenya will continue to be protected from unfair competition for two years after the current safeguard expires in February 2019.

"It has been a tough battle to get this two-year extension.

[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta with CAS Ababu Namwamba during a past function"][/caption]

"But we have articulated our position superbly and what has been adopted is win-win really for Kenya and the rest of the COMESA fraternity. Am very pleased," he relayed soon after the deal was struck.

He further commended the delegation that had been sent to Zambia while explaining what the deal would mean to Kenya.

"It is very good for Kenya as this ring fences our sugar sub-sector from indiscriminate sugar dumping, but we must make good use of this crucial extension so that we do not seek another one in 2021.

"We must now accelerate substantive and effective reforms in the sugar sub-sector to make our products competitive and seek to bridge the current national consumption deficit of over 989,000 metric tonnes.

"We must push forward with the privatization agenda, power co-generation and biofuel production, revision of sugar pricing policies and step up research and development," he stated.

Other items Ababu discussed with the COMESA states representatives were regional peace and security as well as democracy and good governance in the region.

[caption caption="Police inspect impounded sugar during a past crackdown"][/caption]