Katikkiro Mayiga hails MPs for rejecting Vinci Coffee deal

By Olivia Nabaggala

22^nd June 2022

The Katikiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga has lauded Members of Parliament for rejecting the Vinci coffee deal.

Mid last month, Parliament’s Committee on Trade directed government to terminate an agreement it signed with Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited after noting a lot of illegalities and demanded that officials who committed Government to such an agreement should be penalized as a deterrent mechanism to stop similar occurrences in future.

Mbarara City South MP also doubling as the chairman of the Parliament’s committee on trade, Mwine Mpaka said the government was directed to report to Parliament, within 6 months from the date of adoption of the house’s report.

He said in the report that the agreement infringes and reverses the National Coffee Policy specifically the principle that coffee production, processing, marketing shall be undertaken by the private sector as individual farmers and farmer organizations.

The Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka said government would review Parliament’s proposals.

Now, while closing the first phase of Mmengo’s coffee campaign dubbed ‘Emmwanyi terimba’ 2022 at Busula Playground in Katikamu Sub-County, Bulemeezi County, Mayiga has said that Vinci Company should grow its own coffee and trade like all the others without denying others rights.

In reaction, Hassan Kirumira and Robert Ssekitooleko, the Katikamu South and Bamunanika County legislators respectively vowed to fight on in case the Vinci coffee deal is re-tabled in Parliament.