Transport activities were disrupted on Tuesday at the Kenya -Uganda border at Malaba after the clearing agents held demonstrations and blocked the road from the neighbouring country Uganda to Kenya.
Carrying placards while chanting songs, they laid blame on the government officers from Kenya and Uganda for interfering with their daily activities most especially on empty lorries entering Kenya from Uganda.
Led by their chairperson Kennedy Osiya, they said that they unanimously agreed that the long distance lorries enters Kenya without loads pass through Lwakhakha border only for a maximum period of six months.
“It’s now more than a year and the empty lorries have not been given a lee way to pass through Malaba boarder,” Osiya lamented in a statement to the media.
The clearing agents complained that the continuous passage of empty lorries through Lwakhaha border instead of Malaba boarder has killed their daily business transactions like it previously was.
“Some of us now are spending the whole day doing nothing, no business to carry out. Our daily job was to clear the empty lorries that used to pass here at Malaba boarder entering Kenya lakini sasa yanapita Lwakhakha na sisi tunakosa kupata mkate wa.kila siku (but at the moment they pass through Lwakhakha boarder and this has denied us our daily bread,” one of the clearing agent demonstrators lamented. They added the move continues to kill the economy of Malaba boarder.
They have vowed to continue with demonstrations until their cries are heard and attended to.
On the other hand, the long distance drivers led by Bashir Atmstadam complained of lack of their own security and that of clearing agents at Lwakhakha boarder. They vowed not to pass through Lwakhakha boader.
We have had complains and concerns from political class, media platforms and stakeholders from various sectors about the long distance lorries passing through Lwakhakha boarder to Kenya.
The concern is about the route they are using to connect to Bungoma or Webuye back to Nairobi or Mombasa is not meant for long distance vehicle. The continuous passage of long distance vehicles on the said route will destroy the roads, cause accidents due to small sized roads. The question to ponder is, who will be responsible of repairing the roads used and destroyed by long distance vehicles that transport goods to East African countries?
