Trucks On Your Way
By Philip Barasa, DevReporter, Busia County
The Kisumu-Busia Highway, which leads to the Kenya-Uganda border is narrow. It does not have sufficient capacity to accommodate the large traffic to and from the border. The onset of travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic worsened the challenges road users and Busia residents face.
The residents along the Highway have been experiencing increased insecurity, traffic congestion, increased social vices, dirty surrounding and road accidents, challenges that are otherwise avoidable.
The Highway is a two-way carriage whose size is typically for a one-way traffic system. The road users comprise of truck drivers, other motorists and pedestrians who find it difficult to use the narrow road all at same time, which always results in disorganisation and traffic congestion on the highway.
The traffic jam is experienced on the highway throughout the day and this causes huge delays.
Parked trucks
Open defecation and foul smell is evident in Busia County especially close to where the trucks are parked along the highway. A driver explained to this writer that drivers are usually forced to answer calls of nature close to their trucks as residents do not let them use their toilets.
Also the disorganisation on the road forces some of the trucks to park by the roadside. However, because of the very steep edges, the weight of a truck and the goods it carries, which is often too much, results in some of them toppling. This situation poses great danger to unsuspecting pedestrians who end up becoming accident victims when events turn tragic.
Social vices
The Covid-19 pandemic caused a rise in unemployment among the Busia residents. To combat the situation, some turned to social vices like theft and commercial sex work.
A gender activist based in Busia said that drivers that spent days in the new environment awaiting verification of their documents end up being targets of theft and clients of commercial sex workers.
We talked to a Busia traffic police officer who explained how dialogue between Kenya and Uganda eased the situation by speeding up the verification process of covid-19 documents. Unfortunately, the traffic jam situation returned after several weeks.
A similar trucks’ traffic jam situation occurred between Uganda and Tanzania. But the issue was sorted out and movement of trucks resumed after the two countries reached a consensus on measures to implement while mitigating the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hope for Busia residents
There has been a proposal by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) for construction of a three-way road entering Kenya and another one that connects back to Uganda which is meant to ease the congestion.
Further, the County Government of Busia needs to enter into talks with Uganda to enable faster verification process at the border so as to prevent or minimise congestion experienced along the highway.
All stakeholders need to play their part in this issue that has created havoc for years. It will be a dream come true for the residents to have a Busia with well-maintained roads and free from congestion of trucks.
