Kampala — FUEL shortages that were earlier sparked by Kenya's sudden slide into chaos after the disputed December 27 poll are creeping back, with major dealers reporting fast dwindling stocks.

Although the situation has not yet reached the early January crisis levels when a litre of petrol sold as high as Shs10,000, industry insiders yesterday expressed concerns that if supplies fail to improve, acute scarcities would soon set in.

"For the last three days no fuel tanker has come in and obviously that means our dealers are soon running out of stock," Shell's Ivan Kyayonka said.

The fresh disruption of supplies has largely been caused by the recent vandalising of the Kenya-Uganda railway line in Kibera slum, Nairobi thus curtailing fuel shipments. "We've been relying on the railway for the last weeks but since the rail line was uprooted no fuel has come in," he said.

Petroleum executives yesterday met with the government to try to explore alternative means of bringing in fuel but Mr Kyayonka said he couldn't disclose the details because discussions are continuing.

Kobil's Marketing and Communications Manager Joseph Kisembo said their dealers still had some fuel but that he expected it to run out soon because the company had not re-supplied them in three days.

If the scarcities deteriorate to the levels witnessed at the beginning of the months, the economy, which was starting to hum again, could suffer a lasting blow. Uganda manufacturers recently said they have lost $34 million through the disruption of Uganda's external trade.

Mr Kisembo said although the Tanzanian route is now operating as an alternative, it is extremely slow and cannot, on its own, guarantee a constant flow of sufficient petroleum to Uganda.