Shopkeepers in the Ugandan capital of Kampala and around the country shut their doors Wednesday, the start of a two-day strike to protest rising prices.

The Kampala City Traders Association called for the strike after talks between traders and the government aimed at easing the growing cost of doing business failed.

Ugandan police patrolled the streets of Kampala as a precaution, wary of anger that plunged the country into weeks of protests in April. The rights groups Human Rights Watch said resulting clashes between police and protesters killed nine people and wounded more than 250.

President Yoweri Museveni has blamed rising food and fuel prices on drought and the global oil market.

The country's central bank Wednesday moved to slow inflation, setting a new benchmark lending rate of 13 percent.

Rising prices pushed the country's inflation rate to a 17-year high in May.