By Kevin Patrice
Kenyan truck drivers demonstrating on the Kenya Malaba border entry point to Uganda have vowed not to bow down untill their Head of State and his Ugandan counterpart meets them.
In the demonstration that entered a fourth day on Tuesday 26, the drivers are protesting harsh treatment against them by the authorities in Uganda.
In the fight against the novel Coronavirus disease, stringent measures have been erected in concerted efforts by the two States among which include presenting a COVID19 negative test certificate by the drivers before crossing the border into another country. It’s also required that trucker drivers are tested at least twice a week or else they take days in queues waiting to be tested and issues with results at the testing centers set up at the border points.
The demonstrators are protesting the arrangement as unfair and intended to make their lives difficult by imposing unfair restrictions on them.
They also refute the statistics putting them in the most risky category of people likely to infect and be infected by Coronavirus, adding that the narrative is just a hoax by officials to swindle their respective governments’ money unhindered.
” Coronavirus is not there. This is a lie. It’s not with us. We have been buying the merchandise we ferry across borders from communities. We sleep in houses with people. We eat from restaurants and sleep in hotels. Why is it then that only the drivers are sick and the people we interact with are not! Even the police that demand money from us all the time. They don’t get sick from our money! ” Asked one of the drivers.
They have vowed to keep the road closed for Uganda bound commodity vessels untill President’s from both sides meet them for a discussion aimed at finding a lasting solution.
” We are not leaving this place untill President Uhuru and President Museveni meet us and we agree on the way forward” they vowed.
The claims by the drivers, which have so far attracted a lot of attention from Kenyan politicians and civil society organisation has reignited the debate on the authenticity of the reports on mass COVID19 prevalence among the truck drivers.
Last months, in a shocking development, a Kenyan truck driver who had been confirmed COVID19 positive by the tests in Uganda turned out to be negative upon being subjected to another test in Kenya. The development of sparked off a wave of dissatisfaction among the public, with many critics arguing that there could be sinister motives behind.
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