Long-distance truck drivers have blamed the English Premier League and other world top leagues for the perennial traffic jams in Busia and Malaba towns.
Agents who clear trucks ferrying cargo to Uganda, the drivers claim, sometimes prefer watching football at the expense of their work. This, they say, is leading to the slow process of clearing vehicles at the two border posts.
On a weekend when global top league games are played, it is common to see a long queue of long-distance trucks lining up on the Bungoma-Malaba and Kisumu-Busia highways due to slow clearance at the border points.
“Weekends are our worst days on the road, particularly at the border. When big teams like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City are playing, they [clearing agents] leave their stations to go and watch football,” Samuel Kioko who transports clinker to Uganda told the Star.
“In October, I spent nearly 12 hours between Kimait and Amagoro.”
The distance between the two towns is approximately eight kilometres.
Traffic jams usually begin at 2pm when the first English Premier League games kick-off, he said.
He said the drivers only feel relieved beginning 8pm when most of the games have been played.
Another driver, Benson Waweru, who transports household items to the landlocked country through the Kisumu-Busia-Kampala route, said the European leagues are partly to blame for the perennial traffic snarl-ups at the border.
“When there is a football game, the agents disappear,” he said.
“You can only find a few agents who cannot clear trucks at the required speed. We have to be patient and wait for the games to end before normal operations resume.”
His worst time on the road, he said, is when he spent three days near Malaba before he was cleared.
The delay was occasioned by successive football games coupled with a technical hitch that slowed down data processing at the One-Stop Border Post (OSBP).
The furthest the traffic jam has ever extended was in 2015, when the queue made up of long-distance trucks reached Kimait 15km away from Malaba town.
The jam led to a protest staged by truck drivers as they demanded that the government explain why they were spending long hours on the road at a time.
The East African Community member states had agreed on modalities through which traffic flow at the border would be eased.
In May 2012, Kenya and Uganda revenue authorities agreed to work jointly to eliminate congestion at the Busia and Malaba border points as the delays were hurting the economy of the region.
The delays compelled then-President Mwai Kibaki to form a five-member Cabinet task force to address the issue.
Among the concerns the team was to bring into implementation was cutting the time spent in clearing trucks from more than 10 minutes to between one and three minutes.
But the drivers, despite the development, still complain of delayed work by border officials.
“We drive all the way from Nairobi, and we encounter traffic at the Gilgil weighbridge only,” Solomon Adika, another driver, said. “But that one does not take long to clear. Malaba and Busia is where we face challenges.”
Clearing agents, however, said the long trucks’ queues are a result of a new online system introduced by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
They said although some of their members love watching football, their absence at their work stations has never complicated the process of clearing trucks at the border.
Agent Albert Ogendo said, “We watch football but it does not mean all of us leave. We make sure there is enough manpower left at our stations to manage the free flow of traffic.”
The new system by URA captures data as vehicles enter into the Uganda customs yard.
“The system cannot work fast because it takes over 10 minutes to clear one vehicle,” Bernard Kiyingi, an agent from Uganda, said.
Clearing agent Kevin Asoyong said there is always at least one agent in each clearing and forwarding company office to serve the truck drivers whether on weekdays or weekends.
Uganda Revenue Authority officials said the agency had upgraded the system and the clearance process is now fast.
SENATORS PERSPECTIVE
In November, the Senate Committee on Roads and Transport toured the One-Stop Border Posts in Malaba and Busia and expressed disappointment after team members were greeted by long queues of trucks waiting for clearance.
The committee, led by Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi, demanded that the road near the OSBP in Malaba be completed to ease the movement of trucks as they are cleared before they cross into Uganda.
He said the poor state of the road near the OSBP was depicting a poor picture of Kenya, East and Central Africa’s economic powerhouse.
According to a report ‘Border Crossing Monitoring along the Northern Corridor’ published in 2013, border crossing time is among issues identified constraining the smooth flows for both regional trade and international transit.
Border delays disrupt efficient trade logistics impacting on transport costs, prices and trade competitiveness, the 60-page document says.
“In order to improve the efficiency of border crossings in East Africa, the EAC resolved to convert the main border crossings into a One-Stop Border Post (OSBP), in which all border agencies from the two sides of the border coordinate their interventions, thus reducing documentation processing time,” the report partly reads.
It, however, said despite efforts put in place to quicken the time taken to cross the border, delays are still registered every day.
According to the Kenya Revenue Authority, 70 per cent of the cargo transported from Kenya into Uganda passes through the Malaba border post making it East Africa’s busiest transit point.
Since between 800 and 1,000 trucks pass through the border post every day, any slight delay at the clearance check-point can cause traffic jam.
