This tiff between good neighbours Kenya and Uganda will leave both with egg on face

This tiff between good neighbours Kenya and Uganda will leave both with egg on face

So, there is bad blood between Kenya and Uganda, and it could leave either or both of them with egg on the face. Apparently, it relates to poultry products.

Uganda farmers say their chickens reproduce faster because they have better climes and their government is more generous by extending subsidies that make it cheaper to rear chickens and sell eggs to Kenya.

It helps when governments are not building roads in the air, which means they have a little something to spare to support local entrepreneurship. It also helps when taxes are not stolen – over-stealing is the unique formulation that Raila Odinga used to describe government corruption in Kenya — before he switched sides and became a statesman.

But there is no guarantee that M7’s government is not interested in building roads in the air in Kampala, or keeping a bit of cash for its officials. When one is president for life, I guess it makes sense to eat kidogo kidogo, since one will be eating for a long time to come.

Kenyans, on the other hand, have developed a ravenous appetite for Ugandan eggs, apparently because they are cheaper and seasonal. It doesn’t help that even the Ugandan feeds are cheaper than those found in Kenya.

So our good farmers have found a way of going to the city on many hills and rolling downhill a few bales of feeds. And they also throw in a few trays of eggs into the mix.

On the trip, they also carry some calcium-rich components that are used to enrich Ugandan feeds. Very complex business.