Ministry of Agriculture criticized for its inability to control the sabotage of the fish trade
Geoffrey Macho, the MP for Busia Municipality, blasted the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries for the mismanagement of the fish trade in the border district.
As an MP for the region, Macho also alleges that Simon Emongot, a district fisheries officer, has not served Ugandan fishmongers well in clearing their exports to Kenya while failing to vet Kenyan fishmongers who sell fish. immature, an act that sabotages cross-border trade.
Geoffrey Macho says he has registered several complaints with evidence brought to him by fishmongers about poor service delivery by the MAAIF agent at the Busia border. He says he wrote letters to Uganda Revenue Authority – URA, MAAIF and Fish Protection Unit authorities – FPU requesting transfer of Simon Emongot from Busia border to any other destination to no avail.
According to Macho, the negligence of the officer was on display across the country at the Mpondwe border at Kasese where five trucks were seized with immature fish worth 1.5 billion shillings and it continued to affect cross-border trade in the region.
John Rex Achila, the Resident Commissioner of Busia District, says they have held several meetings of the District Border Security Committee on issues regarding the erratic ways of declaring fish by the accused MAAIF officer. He says the committee decided that MAAIF should put in place clear guidelines for proper fish trade across the border.
Achila says his office also has evidence obtained by security agencies that the officer only clears fishmongers arbitrarily.
Julius Nkwasire Mponooka, the URA deputy law enforcement commissioner, told the parliamentary committee meeting held at the Busia border on Friday that as sister government agencies they would intervene.
Efforts to get a comment from Simon Emongot were futile as his known number could not be reached for comment and he was not in the office at the time of filling out this story.
Connie Acayo, the MAAIF spokesperson, says she has no idea about the matter since she is on leave.
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