Truckers resume S Sudan trade route despite attacks

Trucks queue after being automatically diverted to the Mariakani Weighbridge along the main Mombasa-Nairobi highway in Kilifi. [File, Standard]

Kenyan truck drivers are back to business transporting goods to South Sudan after disruptions occasioned by attacks from highway robbers in the Juba hinterland.

Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) CEO Dennis Ombok said although both the Kenyan and South Sudanese governments have not guaranteed security for the drivers, there isn’t much of an option but to return to business. Truck owners who were interviewed said they have decided individually to deploy their vehicles and drivers since they could not afford to miss out on the lucrative transport business amid the prevailing economic hardships.

There is a cutthroat competition for the Juba transport business among Kenyan truckers and their Ugandan counterparts.

No fresh attacks have been reported lately as Sudanese security personnel now patrol the highways.

In the past few weeks, truckers parked their loaded vehicles at the Elegu customs yard, between Uganda and South Sudan. Some 10 drivers were killed and eight trucks set on fire by gunmen believed to be state-sponsored security agents in South Sudan. Ombok insisted that the association is still keen to have the security advisory against South Sudan upheld, although it has no control over its members.

He said that the association will not take the blame for any attacks on individual truckers who have made the decision to ply the dangerous route.

Ombok explained that South Sudan authorities were yet to provide escort to the Kenyan trucks, but military officers are now patrolling the highway.

“Truck owners have made a personal decision to resume the transportation of cargo to Juba,”Ombok said in Mombasa on Tuesday. “The trucks are moving in a convoy while the South Sudan security officers are patrolling the highway. The first fleet arrived in Juba on Monday,” Ombok said.

Ombok explained that loading of cargo at the port of Mombasa has not been disrupted despite the security concerns.

A cargo transporter, Abubakar Awe, said he has heeded the advisory by KTA and will keep off South Sudan until the security situation improves. “I have heeded the KTA advisory not to venture there until security is guaranteed. “I am sure transporters who have taken the risk are afraid of losing business and some may be paying loans,” he said.

A week ago, a truck driver from Kakamega County, Collins Chapurukha, narrated how he collected the burnt body of his colleague, Elijah Thiiru, in South Sudan and delivered it home after a 26-hour drive from the war-ravaged country.

Most of the trucks were reportedly attacked while on their return trip.

More than 300 trucks ferrying cargo from the port of Mombasa to Juba in South Sudan were parked at the border between Uganda and South Sudan for more than a week in protest of the insecurity in the war-torn country.

Some drivers reportedly deflated their vehicles’ tyres fearing they may be forced to transport the cargo across the Uganda-South Sudan border.

South Sudan is the second biggest transit market after Uganda, and that is why the interruption in delivery of cargo has raised concern among players in the Kenyan transport sector.  

More than 1000 trucks deliver cargo to South Sudan from Mombasa Port in a month.

Kenya Long Distance Truck Drivers and Allied Workers Union (KLDTDAWU) chair Roman Waema, and the Mombasa branch chair Masinde Mukhwana said the wave of unprovoked attacks was unbearable.

“Some of the trucks are being bombed,” said Waema. “Attacks happen even near a military camp. We have reason to believe that soldiers could be behind them.”