Thousands of trucks stuck in traffic jam at Malaba border on May 27, 2020. PHOTO | TONY OMONDI | NMG
Despite an agreement arrived at on Wednesday by government
officials from Kenya and Uganda on the process of Covid-19 testing for
truckers at the common border, an association for Kenyan truck drivers
on Thursday advised its members to suspend services until both
governments address stigma and harassment.
Secretary-general
of the Kenyan truckers union Nicholas Mbugua said on Thursday: “There
is no safety agreement between Kenya and Uganda and yet drivers are
being coerced by police officers to cross over to Uganda. We demand to
be guaranteed the safety of our drivers in Uganda.”
Speaking
at the union’s offices in Mlolongo, Mr Mbugua said the drivers were
tired of ‘’unbearable humiliation drivers were subjected to in Uganda”.
Blocked
The
truckers had blocked the Kenyan side of the border for three days from
Monday, stretching almost 50 kilometres. On Tuesday, meetings between
senior government officials from both countries failed to reach an
agreement.
Mercy Ireri, the chief operations officer at
the Kenya Transport Authority, said: “I can confirm people are moving.
Trucks are also moving,” she told The EastAfrican on Wednesday.
“Previously the drivers had demanded that they be addressed by
both President Kaguta Museveni and Uhuru Kenyatta, but we managed to
allay their fears,” she said.
“There was a meeting
yesterday [Tuesday] where we discussed with the truck drivers their
grievances. One of the big issues was the Covid-19 testing. There is a
full agreement to accept each other’s testing,” said Solomon Kitungu,
the principal secretary in Kenya’s ministry of Transport. “Security
issues are being discussed by each partner state as we speak, and we
expect a solution as we move along.”
Mr Kitungu and his
East African Community counterpart Kevit Desai led a delegation of
Kenyan officials to the meeting with the Uganda delegation on Tuesday.
The
Ugandan side was led by James Malinzi from the Uganda Revenue Authority
in charge of Eastern Region, head of health services at Malaba border
point Dennis Turyagenda and Maj Kenneth Habomugisha.
“We
also met with Kenya’s ambassador to Uganda, Kiema Kilonzo, among other
officials, and we have now sorted out the issue,” said Mr Kitungu on
Wednesday.
“We also discovered that some of the Kenyan
drivers insisted on driving to Malaba without Covid-19 certificates and
expected to be tested at the Malaba border before crossing over, a
decision that led to the long queue at the border,” he added.
He
said the directive from Kenya’s Transport Minister James Macharia
requiring that truck drivers be tested 48 hours before their travel
should be adhered to.
Two weeks ago, a similar meeting was held between Kenya and Tanzania at the Namanga border point.
Two weeks ago, a similar meeting was held between Kenya and Tanzania at the Namanga border point.
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