Covid-19: Cross border spread on spotlight as Kenya closes Tanzania, Somali borders

What you need to know:

  • President Uhuru Kenyatta announced cessation of movement of pedestrians and passenger vehicles at its borders with Tanzania and Somalia as the country ramped up measures to fight Covid-19.

Dar es Salaam. Efforts by individual countries in the East Africa region to tackle the spread of the novel coronavirus across borders yesterday saw Kenya ban the movement of pedestrians and passenger s in and out of the country.

President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the country’s border with Tanzania and Somalia will be closed except for cargo transportation following the rise of cross-border transmission.

The directive takes effect from midnight May 16, 2020. And Kenyatta stated that only truck drivers who test negative for the coronavirus will be allowed entry into Kenya.

“All drivers of the cargo vehicles shall be subjected to mandatory Covid-19 testing and will only be granted entry into Kenya if they test negative,” said the President.

Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Colonel Wilbert Ibuge, declined to comment on the new development, saying it was only the minister who could speak on the matter.

“Despite being the ministry’s accounting officer, the minister is the main spokesperson vested with responsibilities to give the country’s positions on various international issues,” he said in a telephone interview with The Citizen.

Efforts to reach out to the minister, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi, proved futile by the time of filing this report yesterday. Kenya shares borders with Tanzania at Namanga, Sirare, Lungalunga and Horohoro.

But speaking recently in Dar es Salaam, Prof Kabudi said the government was engaging its EAC neighbours on how to resolve the challenges related to cross border transmission of coronavirus between Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

It has also emerged that when the Heads of State of the East African Community held a virtual consultative meeting on the pandemic on May 12, Tanzania reportedly requested for a bilateral meeting with Rwanda to iron out outstanding issues on the movement of cargo trucks between the two countries, according to Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Vincent Biruta who was quoted by New Times newspaper of Rwanda.

Burundi, however, requested to sit out of the meeting because they are preparing for their General Election slated for May 20, and are in campaign period, according to New Times, Rwanda’s pro-government newspaper.

The EAC’s cooperation and working together is likely to determine how fast the region can resume normalcy in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has so far claimed over 300,000 lives globally while 4.7 million people having been infected.

The bloc, according to EAC secretariat sources, is working out modalities to determine aspects such as free movement of good across the bloc without compromising individual states’ vulnerability to the pandemic.

This as concerns mounted over the fate of freight movement across the bloc, even though the same problem was facing other borders such as between Tanzania and Zambia.

Countries such as Rwanda have imposed requirememnts of a relay system that would allow handing over of cargo trucks to Rwandan drivers at border points, offloading cargo at border points as well as Covid-19 clearance certificates for truck drivers. It not clear yet if Tanzania and Rwanda have held the bilateral meeting.

When addressing Kenyans from State House in Nairobi yesterday, President Kenyatta said over the last one week a total of 43 positive cases recorded in the country had been imported from the neighbouring Somalia and Tanzania.

“These 43 cases represent almost a quarter of the 166 confirmed infections during this last week,” said Kenyatta.

Kenya confirmed 49 new cases, 14 recoveries and 5 deaths 14 Kenyan truck drivers among 43 new Covid-19 cases in Uganda.

He noted that out of the 43 imported cases, 14 were recorded in Wajir, 16 in Namanga, two in Lunga Lunga and one in Loitoktok.

The President further noted that 78 truck drivers who were foreign nationals tested positive for Covid-19 and were denied entry into Kenya at different border crossings.

“If we had not taken that intervention the imported cases through our borders would today have accounted for more than 50% of this weeks infections,” he said.

The Head of State said within the Kenyan borders, Covid-19 infections have now spread to 22 of the 47 counties.

“These numbers and the spread of infections clearly indicate that if no action is taken all the gains already achieved in combating this pandemic will undoubtedly be lost,” he said.

In Uganda, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases rose to 203 after 43 truck drivers tested positive. This is the highest number of infections that the country has recorded in one day. The new cases were part of the 1,838 samples from truck drivers that were tested on Friday. They include 17 Ugandans, 14 Kenyans, 5 Tanzanians, 2 Burundians, 4 Eritreans and one other whose nationality is unknown. They arrived via Mutukula, Malaba and Elegu borders.