Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja on Friday evening visited Malaba border point, held a meeting with all the government agencies and departments concerned with the clearing of trucks and made a number of directives to ease the flow of movement at the border.

In a tweet on Saturday, Nabbanja said “After inspecting work at Malaba border and in order to clear the long queues of cargo and fuel trucks, I have directed, temporary suspension of weighbridge at Malaba and instead to use other locations in Mbale, Magamaga. Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) increases staff at Malaba and Busia. SCIPA to increase staff and operate 24 hours.”

The Prime Minister also warned that dealers keeping fuel prices high will be investigated by the government.

Nabbanja who on Friday visited Malaba border point of entry noted that following her visit to Malaba and the data she had been given by the Uganda Revenue Authority officials manning the point of entry, “It is clear that there is enough fuel coming into the country to meet our national consumption. There is no reason to keep pump prices high,” Nabbanja said.

UNBS implements the Marking and Quality Monitoring Program under a cooperative arrangement with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development designed to control and monitor the quality of petroleum products in the entire supply chain in Uganda.

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) assistant commissioner in charge of enforcement Julius Nkwasire said the authority is working to ensure fuel is marked 24 hours contrary to the 12 hours by UNBS.

He also said they had agreed that Kenya uses their mobile scanners to speed up the process.

Nkwasire said that the Busia border brings in about 70% of the fuel both for internal and external use.

“They have been ranging between 104 and 118 fuel tankers per month. But since January 15, 2022, Busia brought in 165 fuel tankers, January 16 they cleared 184 fuel tankers, January 17, 116, January 18, URA cleared over 200 trucks and on Wednesday we had a slump because the scanner had a challenge for close to two hours. We are meeting the daily average that is supposed to be imported but the question is why the shortage?” Nkwasire wondered.

He said URA had increased the number of staff at both the Malaba and Busia entry points.

The number of trucks entering the country had also steadily improved and the initial jam created as the driver went on strike inside Kenya had also greatly reduced.

On Thursday, New Vision crossed into Kenya up to Amagoro sub-county headquarters some 10 kilometres in Busia County and witnessed the smooth flow of trucks into the country without any hindrances to the drivers.

The truck drivers on January 3 went on strike on the Kenyan side protesting against the Ugandan government’s decision on mandatory COVID-19 testing fees which they said were too exploitative.

Whereas drivers tested for free in Kenya, they were required upon entry into Uganda to pay Ksh3,500 an equivalent Uganda sh110,000 which the drivers said was not sustainable.

The drivers blocked entry into Uganda at the Kenyan customs yard and the main great northern corridor before locking and abandoning their trucks to allow the two governments to harmonise the testing conditions.

Testing was later suspended.