Riding the waves of change: changing relations in the Ugandan sugar sector

The sugar industry in Uganda is longstanding, with the first sugar mills being set up in the 1920s. The industry has, for a long time, been dominated by a few large domestic business conglomerates with close links to the ruling elite, of which Kakira Sugar Works (Kakira) in the Busoga region is the largest. Kakira has over time developed a comprehensive relationship with different parts of the local population, which clearly resembles what Buur et al. (2020) call reciprocal exchange relations between investors and local populations. However, during the last decade, several new sugar mills have emerged, challenging the established relations within and around the sugar industry. This chapter explains how the emergence of new actors in the sugar industry challenged the well-established relationship between Kakira and the local community as well as the long-established political protection of the older group of large sugar investors, and demonstrates the increased importance of local populations and sugarcane farmers in local-level politics in Uganda.