The clearing of the more than 50km stretch queue of trucks at the Kenya-Uganda Malaba border has started.
This is according to the Cabinet Secretary for East African Community and Regional Development Adan Mohammed.
Speaking during the coronavirus updates from the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, the CS said that the situation at Malaba border has hugely affected the transportation of cargo from the Port of Mombasa to other East Africa Community countries that depend on it.
“Malaba border is the serious issue we are dealing with at the moment because of the delays we suffer through the corridor,” he said.
He added that the time being taken by truck drivers to transport goods from Mombasa to Uganda has doubled due to the measures introduced to curb the spread of the virus.
“During pre-corona days, it would ordinarily take three days for a driver to drive from the Port of Mombasa to Kampala and back,” Adan said.
He added that “The issue at Malaba border point is an issue of our own making but grievances are being heard.”
The CS further said that the long queue is becoming a national security threat, which prompted action to clear it.
“The four trucks that had been blocking entry into the Uganda side of the border have now been cleared and clearances of people and movement of trucks have already started moving,” the CS said.
The exercise will take five days to clear the backlog. Adan said that the stakeholders at the border point have been asked to work 24 hours to ensure that the situation is resolved.
The truck drivers have been asked to take their virus tests in Kenya before the journey in order to avoid inconveniences at the border point.
"We urge our Kenyan truck drivers to go through testing in Kenya to avoid issues with the authorities at the border points in Uganda.
The country confirmed 62 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, adding the total cases in the country to 1,348.
This is out of the 2,292 samples that were tested in the last 24 hours.Of the new cases, 59 are Kenyans, while three are foreigners.
Their ages are from six to 64 years.