The busy border points of Busia and Malaba have remained nearly deserted after the implementation of charges for Covid-19 tests.
Busia and Malaba borders are known to record an average of more than 1,000 trucks on a daily basis.
However, yesterday in Busia, Kenya the queues were stretching 15kms, while on the Uganda side it was three kilometres.
Umar Zamba , a truck driver at Busia border, said that the Covid-19 testing charges were too high.
“I am paid Shs200,000 per route to pick goods from Mombasa back to Uganda, where do I get all those dollars they are telling us to pay,” Zamba asked.
He said drivers have been taking two tests per month , meaning that they will have to fork out about Shs500,000 as monthly testing fees.
The Ministry of Health implemented charges of $65 (about Shs240,5000) yesterday for truck drivers and other private individuals and organisations seeking testing for coronavirus.
The ministry had since March this year been providing free tests to all truck drivers.
But with the cost of $65 dollars for each test carried out on each truck driver each day, means the government central laboratory, Uganda Virus Research Institute and the Makerere public laboratory, receive at least 5,000 samples for analysis meaning the cost on the side of government has been approximately Shs1 billion per day.
Two weeks ago, Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, told reporters at the Busia Malaba border that providing free tests to trucks drivers was no longer sustainable because of the high cost involved.
“We have been providing free tests but the cost is huge to be sustained by the government,” Dr Atwine said.
Innocent Masiga, a clearing agent in Busia, Kenya said if the decision is not revisited, it would hurt trade in the East African region.
By midday, the Busia and Malaba port health centres, which carry out more than 700 tests a day, had not received a single driver to take the test.
“Since morning, we have not received any single driver coming to have tests for Covid-19,” a source at the border said.
John Micheal Amodoi, a clearing agent at the Busia border, said drivers without valid certificates for Covid-19, have parked and remained in their trucks.
Amodoi said many drivers did not have prior information about the new directives by the Ministry of Health.
“We depend on Kenya for our fuel and raw materials , so if drivers are not allowed to enter the country because they can not afford paying, then it puts the country in a difficult situation,” he said.
“This policy should be revisited because they are indirectly telling drivers to park their trucks and stay home,” Masiga said.
Truck drivers say
Issa Batwaula, a Ugandan truck driver, said the charges should be lowered so that more people and not just truck drivers are encouraged to come for the voluntary tests.
Samuel Nganga, a Kenyan truck driver, hopes the Health ministry pushes the cost to the truck owners and not the drivers.
Bikonyo Kimondo, a Kenya truck driver, said the government of Uganda should adopt the Kenya policy where tests were free for truck drivers save for public transport operators, who pay Kshs1,000 (Shs35000) for the tests every month.
An official from the central government laboratory said that they were getting overwhelmed by the tests.
“We have been doing so many tests each day and our officers have had to sleep in the laboratories analysing sample after sample , under a lot of pressure,” the official who declined to be named said.
He said the new policy will allow the various countries to carry the burden of testing their nationals and help free some pressure on the laboratory officials and government to save money.
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