It would seem like Uhuru has just thrown Mumias under the Mbus

Can you please explain this? How is exposing dying Mumias to competition, including possibly re-exported sugar routed through Uganda, good for the company?

Why then were they earlier fighting the removal of COMESA protections?

I believe Kenya is a net importer of Sugar. If we were caught trying to sell sugar to Uganda, I believe it would be a clear indication that someone somewhere was cheating. Whether we can stop Ugandans from cheating is another matter.

By the way I started seeing Lugazi sugar in our super markets some weeks ago. I even bought some. So is this so called agreement simply an attempt to regularize a fait acompli?

Kenya has been protecting it's sugar industries from rogue COMESA states which import sugar from other destinations and export it to Kenya as their product. This countries are Egypt,Malawi and Swaziland. Uganda has never been on the list.Two,when you look at the key smuggled sugar points on our porous borders,again,the Ugandan side brings in 0% and it will take a miracle for it to become an entry to smuggled sugar.Three, we are quick to ask our neighbours to open up their borders so we may access their markets but we are not willing to open ours .They won't even tell that MSC's biggest market for ethanol has been Uganda and DRC)). Four, it must be noted that Kakira,Mumias and Lugazi are not far from one another and therefore a fair and competitive environment is an advantage to each.MSC will have advantage due it's size and if they resolve their issues which i believe will be done shortly under the steward of the very able Errol. Finally, i find two sets of schools who are questioning the agreement. The producer who fears competition (Even though we haven't heard from any) and our Leader in Opposing.....Ni hayo tuu.

Thank you for the explaination. From what you say, it would seem that Ugandan sugar is not a threat to Mumias (and I assume by extension to the Kenyan sugar industry).

But I still don't see how it will help Mumias whose impeding death has more to do with managerial incompetence than competition. Competition is the last thing they would want, even when the threat is overblown.

Finally, as you have noted, all the critics who are coming out of the wood work seem to come armed with political arguments, none economic or geopolitical. In fact I expect a threat by the Western block to 'rethink' their recent Glasnost with Jubilee to be issued soon. It will be interesting to see how Uhuruto square this circle.