Diplomatic efforts between government of Uganda and that of China to have Ugandan drug traffickers jailed in China are yet to yield any fruits according to foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa.

According to the minister, China believes that Uganda is lenient to drug traffickers and believes that if they are released back to Uganda, they will not be punished and will go back to China.

Kutesa assured the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs chaired by Sam Okuonzi that the Chinese authorities insist that they have no confidence that Uganda will punish these prisoners because it seems the country is not committed to fighting this problem of drug trafficking.

The minister’s revelation came after the committee tasked him to explain what kind of support government was giving to distressed Ugandans languishing in Chinese jails.

He said as government, it doesn’t believe in drug trafficking but China thinks government is not serious about this; the reason it insists on keeping these prisoners.

Kutesa says as part of the efforts to restore confidence to China about Uganda’s commitment to deal with this vice, he has already told justice and constitutional affairs minister to strengthen the country’s legal regime pertaining drug trafficking but the committee urged him to engage Chinese authorities not to hang these people until the laws in Uganda have been strengthened so that they can be handed back.

His revelation came after two Ugandan nationals were last month executed in China over drug trafficking while over 100 more are facing the same fate courtesy of similar offences.