Budadiri West MP Nathan Nandala Mafabi
What are your comments on how the Bill was processed and passed?
For me I feel happy that I have made my case for the population and the government to judge me because I know they will think about what I raised. The coffee sector is a very important sector in our country.
As you are aware, coffee is the second largest traded commodity after oil in the world. In Uganda, there are regions that cultivate coffee, providing income and supporting the livelihoods of the people there.
Even in areas where coffee is not grown, many still earn a living through trading it.Therefore, this is a big sector which has a high multiplier effect on the economy.
So the Bill has been passed and we thought we could get some transition period but [the government side] said ‘no’ and now it is gone. We know the Ministry of Agriculture lacks capacity but they have indicated their intention to take over UCDA. We are yet to know how it turns out. If they take on the functions of UCDA and perform them well, it will be good.
What do you make of the decision by the majority of the Opposition lawmakers to exit plenary and boycott the sitting that eventually passed the coffee Bill?
It affected us a lot because if all of us had been there then we could have put up a strong case for a [transition] period. But having decided to go out, it was very unfortunate that we remained a few of us who tried to put up a spirited fight.
And it is that spirited fight that led us to do some amendments.
Personally, I have been in a lot of boycotts in Parliament, but when you boycott, [the lawmakers that remain] always pass the Bills. You remember that Public Order Management Bill. If we had insisted on continuing as we had been moving [in opposing that Bill, it would have been different] because we were achieving a lot, but when we went out, things changed, and it passed like that.
What will be the repercussions of signing the coffee Bill into law?
Most likely we are going to be off the accreditation list in the world and that would take us some time to regain it. It may take us a minimum of five years.
The UCDA has specialised expertise in coffee, which is the country’s largest foreign exchange earner. Historically, coffee played a crucial role in Uganda’s journey to independence, with Bugisu coffee contributing £300,000 and Buganda adding £500,000 to the cause. What will happen after [this Bill is enacted into] law, I honestly can’t predict for sure.
We know government operations are very inefficient. So we may compromise our [coffee] quality, which in turn, may result in a decline in world market prices, reducing the benefits we would otherwise gain from maintaining high-quality standards. I am even worried that adulterations will be in plenty on the coffee. So the regret will be that we passed a law which has a lot of gaps and may cause poverty among our people.
When you say gaps, which ones do you mean?
They include gaps in quality, accreditation and technical services that UCDA has been providing.
What is your take on the allegation that this matter has been politicised?
I don’t think so because I have been around for a while to notice that people claim that for [Bills or matters] to go through, there are always some people that have been bribed. And so they also call it politics. If you noticed very well, all persons that were affected by this Bill were from both divides of the House—Opposition and the ruling party side. It is just that there are people in the ruling [establishment] that don’t have the muscle to stand up but they would have opposed it.
You know, one of the things that the President promised is to crush the Opposition and that is very dangerous. We agree the head of State has the state machinery and security which do a lot. For instance they came and tortured people in the House. So the statements the President used - that he would crush, were not called for.
Is there any fallback position?
For us in eastern Uganda, we might survive [because] Kenya is very near and [some of the] people who like our coffee are from Kenya. All things considered, this law did not need to be rushed. The law has some complications and I am not so sure how they are going to take care of that.
So what can be done to sustain coffee quality in Uganda?
We want our sectoral committees to be very vigilant. My only worry is the motive of the government. Do they want to regulate the issuing of licences? We are yet to find out. If they don’t like you, they may refuse to give you a licence and yet you have coffee in your store…
There are fears that the legislation seems to vest lots of power in the person of the Agriculture minister. Do you think this creates room for indirect control by the President?
That is why I was trying to put in resistance so that we create safeguards. If the minister is very bad, he can use this law to kill the sector or for corruption tendencies. Nonetheless, I urge farmers to maintain the highest standards of cleanliness for their coffee and explore alternative methods or markets for selling it.
Maybe farmers should support the sector themselves if the government is saying it incurs heavy costs in the process through entities like UCDA?
If they had allowed farmers, then they would. However, my instinct tells me that we need to consider whether we have the capacity to set up a laboratory. These are just some of the challenges we face, but challenges are a part of life. We find alternatives. For us from Bugisu, living near the border, we know that anything is possible.
So what is the next course of action?
I want to encourage them that there is no permanent situation. Mr Museveni is here, tomorrow he will not be here. Don’t try to cut your trees...Coffee is not an annual crop, it takes many years [to grow] and you start [benefiting] for many years. So farmers should not despair. Continue planting coffee and maintaining it. [As a plan B], if we agree, we can pick our coffee and keep it for one year and then people will look for us.
