This comes after Uganda directed all empty trucks returning to Kenya to reroute through Lwakhakha border in Namisindwa District.
A government decision taken two years ago has left several residents of Malaba border unemployed and turned the once vibrant area into a ghost town.
n 2021, the Minister for Works and Transport, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, and his Kenyan counterpart directed all empty trucks returning to Kenya to reroute through Lwakhakha border in Namisindwa District.
The directive aimed at solving the backlog of trucks along the Malaba-Bungoma and Busia-Kisumu highway, following a two-week protest by truck drivers over Covid-19 protocols by the Ministry of Health.
Mr Peter Sireka Namalwa, the chairperson of Malaba clearing fraternity, however, says whereas the 2021 directive by the two ministers was for 14 days, aimed at solving the backlog challenges, a year-and-a-half later, the policy has become permanent.
“At the Busia border, when the directive expired after 14 days, empty trucks returned, but here (at Malaba border), the directive still stood,” Mr Namalwa said in an interview at the weekend.
He accused Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) of carrying out “selective application of policies” that target one border.
But Mr Haruna Mutebi Wadda, the acting manager URA Eastern Region, thinks otherwise.
“The policy to reroute empty trucks to Lwakhakha was still in force until last April and had just been reviewed by top bosses in Kampala and Nairobi. The policy had been reviewed to allow empty trucks pass through Malaba border from 10pm to 7am,” Mr Mutebi said.
“Malaba is the biggest land border in the country, which lies along the Northern corridor with a high volume of both dry and wet cargo destined for the country and other regional states, with an estimated volume of trucks standing each day at 2,500,” he added.
Mr Mutebi further explained that since then, we have industrial parks in Mbale, Kapeeka, Namanve and export zones in Jinja, Pader and Gulu, which have seen the volumes of Uganda’s exports grow.
“And as a result, we are looking at seeing how fast these exports are taken across the border and not empty trucks,” he said.
The URA official said instead of allowing empty trucks to come and congest the border, causing delays, their priority was to see that exports from the country are taken across the border as quickly as possible and that is why they were insisting on having empty trucks consigned to Lwakhakha border.
Clearing agents from both Kenya and Uganda last week, joined by several Malaba residents, barricaded Malaba-Bugoma highway, paralysing the flow of exports from Uganda to Kenya and imports into the country.
Mr Namalwa said the strike was sparked off after the tax body backed out of negotiations with clearing agents over allowing empty trucks to once again pass through the Malaba border.
“We had several engagements with URA over allowing the empty trucks and in the last meeting, we had agreed that the border should be open to allow return trucks beginning Sunday (yesterday), but the tax body backed out,” Mr Namalwa said.
He explained that they were irked when URA officers reportedly ordered its enforcement team to force empty trucks, which were queued and ready to cross to Kenya, back to exit through the Lwakhakha border.
In addition, tax officers, he alleged, threatened to remove number plates of the empty trucks and impose fines on trucks whose drivers did not adhere to the directive.
Following the blockage, trucks and private vehicles, including motorcycles from both sides of the border, were not allowed to cross the Malaba Bridge, the epicentre of the strike.
Counting losses
Ms Hadija Lubambo, the chairperson Malaba Youth Development Association (MYDA), a group of about 500 young men and women who had been living off clearing empty trucks, said since the policy (of rerouting empty trucks to Lwakhakha border) had pushed all her members out of employment.
“We used to run after these empty trucks, helping the drivers to clear the border processes and at the end earn between Shs3,000 and Shs5,000 from each truck,” Ms Lubambo said.
Ms Suzan Atim, one of the group members, says whereas many people were looking at clearing work, empty truck drivers usually had money to spend before crossing to Kenya.
“They (returning drivers) spent on food, bread, soap, sugar, bananas, and occupied guest houses,” she said, adding that one truck driver would spend in the excess of $100 (about Shs360,000) per day at Malaba border.
“But since the trucks are being redirected to Bugisu, businessmen and women have closed shop and shifted to Osukuru in Tororo District and Tororo Town, leaving the border a ghost place,” she added.
Ms Florence Nambozo, a widow who vends yellow bananas along the streets of Malaba Town, said before the implementation of the policy, her major customers were empty truck drivers.
“I was selling between two and three baskets of yellow bananas each day, but since the decision to direct empty trucks to Lwakhakha was enforced, I hardly sold one basket,” she said.
Mr Andrew Orono Mugisha, the Malaba Town Council LC3 chairperson, said the last nail in the coffin of the area’s economy was the implementation of the policy to reroute empty trucks to Lwakhakha border.
“When you move around, more than 50 percent of houses are closed and have no businesses because clearing work which was a backbone of the Malaba economy is no longer there,” he said, adding that many residents had returned to their villages, while others had shifted to other towns to set up their businesses.
Pastor Peter Luswata, a resident, said at the height of business, Malaba border had several banking institutions. “We had Stanbic, Absa, DFCU and Global Trust, which all left Malaba when the clearing business collapsed,” he said.
Background
In 2021, the Minister for Works and Transport, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, and his Kenyan counterpart directed all empty trucks returning to Kenya to reroute through Lwakhakha border in Namisindwa District.
The directive was aimed at solving the backlog of trucks along the Malaba-Bungoma and Busia-Kisumu highway, following a two-week protest by truck drivers.
Source; monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/