Truck drivers on the northern corridor who had gone on strike protesting against the $30 Covid test fee imposed by the Ugandan government have expressed their frustration at the traffic snarl-up that has caused them to spend days on the road.
By Tuesday, the traffic was moving slowly.
An official at the border side of Uganda told The EastAfrican that the machines had been slow due to poor network, which resulted in a slow process of clearing the truckers.Everything is moving on smoothly; we just want the drivers to be patient as the systems pick up, he said.
The drivers lamented that even after the charge was done away with following a meeting with East African Community officials, the slow pace of Covid-19 testing and cargo clearance at the border has caused a huge jam that has subjected them to untold suffering.
The drivers said that before the snarl-up, they would take at most one week for trips from Mombasa in Kenya to Uganda, South Sudan, DRC, Rwanda and Burundi. But now, they are taking about three weeks.
On Tuesday, the huge jam stretched for over 130 kilometres from Malaba border town to Lwandeti market in Kakamega County, and it was moving at a snails pace.
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