Fri, 1 Feb 2008 06:55:38 -0800 (PST)



KISUMU 1ST FEB 2008
By Leo Odera Omolo

THE fuel crisis in Uganda continues to deepen as main roads leading to neighbouring Kenya remain barricaded by political goons posing serious problems to supply distribution.

Most of the fueling station are said to be operating in their last supply. The situation has seen fuel pump prices sky rocket from the normal Ush. 90 per litre to all time high of Ush 400 per litre.

The escalated fuel price is being blamed on the scrupulous middlemen who are taking advantage of the political crisis in the neighbouring Kenya to like prices.

Uganda remains undersupplied. Some smell and middle- class factories in both Kampala and the sister town of Jinja have closed down.

In an attempt to mitigate the oil crisis, the Ugandan government has invited bids from oil companies to supply 30 million litres of fuel to beet up the country fuel stock

At the same time, the East African Business council ( EABC) has issued a stern warning to its members and the public at large in the region saying that the disruption in oil supply now threatens to tear economies in the region.

EABC Chairman Mr. Arun Devani has been quoted extensively as saying that the Eastern African region’s economics development is reeling under interruption of transportation of the essential commodities from Kenyan manufacturers to the rest of the region

The landlocked neighbouring countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan and the Eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) depended entirely on the Kenyan coastal port city of Mombasa for their supplies, imports and exports.

“ Restriction on movement of trucks ferrying cargo over land to those countries occasioned by violence in most parts of Kenya has cut off supplies and now threatens to bring the entire region’s economy to its knees” said Mr. Devani.

“The crisis has cost regional economies billions of shillings brining some sectors, like tourism on their knees” he added.

Last Tuesday, the Kenya manufacturers Association (KMA) estimated that the gross domestic production (GDP) would stall by KSM 260 billion ( Kshs 3.5 billion) or more than 3 percent if post-election violence did not cease.