The Miritini testing centre for transit truck drivers received a major boost after two more booths were introduced to boost tests that have largely been blamed for serious delays that have been experienced at border crossing points in the recent weeks.
This support came from the county government of Mombasa, which has received many accolades on the manner in which it had tackled Covid 19 since the region reported its first case.
The Kenya Transporters Association (KTA), which has been lobbying for an enhanced testing capacity in the country, in a statement, said that these extra booths in addition to the existing one will see the facility test three times the number it has been managing.
“This therefore means that the daily target of the testing will rise from the previous 100 to 300 or more,” KTA Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Ombok said.
KTA said that it will push for creation of more testing capacity to help Mombasa meet the demand of 600 drivers daily to allow seamless flow of the cargo through the borders.
The Ministry of East African Community and Regional Development raised concern recently when it toured Miritini testing facility on the low number of Covid 19 tests the region was doing, which he warned would make Mombasa port non-competitive as a regional port.
The ministry’s Cabinet Secretary (CS), Adan Mohammed, asked the Miritini testing centre in Mombasa to increase the number of daily tests to meet the 600 daily drivers demand.
Lack of sufficient tests, according to the industry stakeholders, also delayed the period it is taking to release Covid 19 results. Mohammed also asked the Mombasa port, which runs a health facility to cater for its employees, to consider putting in place supportive infrastructure to also test Covid 19 on truck drivers.
“The number of containers leaving the Mombasa port is above 600 and I am told that the facility here can accommodate only 100 drivers per day, how does this work?” the CS posed, adding that if this problem persists.
The cause of the low number of tests, according to KTA was due to insufficient human capacity at the Ministry of Health and lack of sufficient testing kits.
Gilbert Langat, Shippers Council of East Africa (SCEA) recently said that the test results took long to get and with the expiry after 14 days and delays along the Northern Corridor, by the time the drivers reach borders, the certificates are no longer valid.
The resultant delays have led to a huge surge in cost of transport. The cost of moving transit cargo has gone up by a huge margin with Kampala recording a US $ 1000 increase, Kigali $ 1400, South Sudan US$ 2800 and US$ 2000 in Bujumbura. With the increased testing capacity, this cost is expected to drop.
Getting test results was taking up to 10 days in some instances, according to Langat, affecting truck turnaround, which stood for up to 26 days for a return trip to the South Sudan destination.
With the progressive opening of the East Africa economies, industry players are putting in place various measures on how to live with the new normal.
A set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for all the industry players have been developed to help reduce the spread of Covid 19 among the logistics service providers in the East Africa region.
The Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA), the umbrella body of the clearing agents in the East Africa’s countries of Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya, with the support from Trademark East Africa (TMEA) is spearheading this initiative.
The regional lobby has already finalized development of the procedures that will guide industry players’ activities to prevent further spread of the virus.
These measures target the cargo road trucking- drivers, crew and transporters; warehousing, Container Freight Station (CFSs) and Inland Container Depots (ICD). The other set of measures are targeting customs clearance and freight forwarders sector.
