For weeks the government has remained silent as a mega traffic trailer jam has built up from the Uganda – Kenya Malaba border. The jam has now stretched over 100 kilometres. The Malaba station normally clears between 600 and 1,000 cargo trucks every day.
By Monday morning this week, the mega jam that started three weeks ago from the Malaba border town in Busia County had built up through neighbouring Bungoma and passed Lwandeti in Kakamega County.
Shockingly, the government has appeared unbothered by the predicament truckers and businesses are facing with the jam. This is despite the jam holding billions of money in goods.
The jam has also seen truckers attempting to overlap get beaten and hospitalized and their trucks vandalized. The jam began in late December when Uganda introduced a mandatory testing requirement that would cost drivers Sh. 3,600 each. The drivers protested the move saying it was discriminatory. This led to a pile up of trucks. However, Uganda later dropped the demand and instead instructed that the truckers be tested on the Kenyan side.
However, jam has continued to pile up. According to multiple truckers, the current pile up is due to slow testing by Kenyan health officials who are too few to handle the number of truck drivers.
Over the recent past, the Ministry of Transport in Kenya has adopted a notorious attitude towards the trucking industry in Kenya in a bid to shore up the fortunes of the multi-billion SGR railway line that is yet to post a profit.