Gen Mbadi Urges Uganda, Kenya to Remove Trade Barriers

What the report says

Uganda’s Minister of State for Trade, Gen Wilson Mbadi, has urged Uganda and Kenya to move faster in removing persistent barriers to cross-border trade, warning that slow implementation of previously agreed measures could weaken regional integration. According to SoftPower News, he made the remarks while closing a meeting of the Uganda-Kenya Joint Technical Committee on trade.

The discussion focused on long-standing problems affecting trade between the two neighbours, though the source snippet does not list the specific barriers raised. Mbadi’s intervention signals continued pressure on both governments to resolve practical obstacles that traders and businesses say can disrupt movement of goods, raise costs and delay regional commerce.

The meeting sits within broader East African efforts to improve trade flows and deepen economic cooperation. In that context, removing non-tariff barriers is often seen as important for making regional agreements work in practice, especially for small traders and firms that depend on predictable access to markets.

SoftPower News reported the call as part of ongoing bilateral technical engagement rather than a new policy announcement. The article’s headline and snippet indicate that the main message was an appeal for quicker action, with the goal of supporting trade and wider integration between Uganda and Kenya.