Billions reaped out of Malaba's rotten truck yard

Malaba

Malaba is Uganda's main border point to Kenya and the seaport of Mombasa. It is the border point which also handles most of the exports and imports for the land-locked countries in the Great Lakes Region including Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan.

Records available in the office of the Eastern Region, Uganda Revenue Authority Manager at Malaba, Mr James Abodi, indicate that at-least 560 cargo trucks are cleared daily. And out of the 560, at-least 50 of them are fuel tankers. And on average, government collects between Shs3 billion and Shs5 billion shillings in taxes from this border point alone daily.

Despite all the revenue which government collects from this border point, one wonders whether it feels for the state of the Customs parking yard or not? It is like one milking a cow he/she does not feed.

The yard has been in an appalling state for as long as it has been in existence. It has developed huge potholes which now look more like water lagoons, fish ponds, gullies and small wells and streams.

This appalling state of affairs in October forced the long distance truck drivers to declare a boycott of the yard. They complained that their trucks were breaking down, were getting stuck in the mud while at least one truck was overturning in the terrible yard daily.

The drivers parked their trucks along the narrow murram roads in the town and caused severe damage within a very short time, raising alarm from the local leaders, like the Mayor George Alfred Obore who blamed URA and the government for causing the mess in town by failing to repair the yard before the situation went out of hand.

"This yard did not get damaged today. It has been bad for a long time and has kept on worsening each day. URA and government were looking at it," Mr Obore complained to Sunday Monitor recently.