Jackline Obuya, a fishmonger based in Busia town, has been making frantic phone calls to relatives and friends asking them for money to repay a bank loan.
She took the loan five months ago seeking to expand her fish business, but the bank she borrowed from has lately been on her neck.
“The bank is threatening to auction my property because I defaulted to repay a Sh70,000 loan within three months,” Ms Obuya told The Saturday Standard.
She is among traders who borrowed money from a local bank and bought salted fish from Lake Turkana while eyeing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) market.
“We packed the fish into four lorries and took them to DRC, but Ugandan security impounded our fish at Mpondwe area and sold it. The fish was worth Sh50 million,” Obuya said.
The Fisheries Protection Unit of Uganda claimed the fish that was impounded was immature and that Kenyan traders had stolen it from Lake Kyoga and Lake George, but the traders have denied the accusations.
Obuya says that even if the bank auctions her household goods, animals and her remaining fish stock, it would not be able to recover all its money.
“Ordinarily we go for the loans as a group and apply for between Sh50,000 and Sh500,000 depending on your ability to repay. We pool the resources and buy fish for export and repayment is made once we sell the fish.”
Obuya and her colleagues lodged a case at a magistrate’s court in Mpondwe seeking orders to have their fish released but the matter was dismissed at their expense.
Collusion
The Kenyan traders believe their counterparts in the DRC and Uganda colluded to put…