Kenya–Uganda pledge rapid fixes at clogged border posts

Monday 1st September 2025,

By inAfrika Reporter

NAIROBI/MBale— Trade ministers from Kenya and Uganda have pledged urgent measures to decongest Malaba, Busia, Suam and Lwakhakha crossing points after a spike in complaints from hauliers over multi-day queues and inconsistent checks. Following directives from Presidents Ruto and Museveni after late-July talks in Nairobi, ministers Lee Kinyanjui and Wilson Mbasu met in Mbale and issued a joint communiqué to align border practice with EAC protocols.

Immediate steps include an on-the-spot audit of One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) to verify real-world performance against design, clearing the current truck backlog within 24 hours, and capping queues at no more than four kilometres. Agencies were instructed to maintain 24/7 operations, reduce duplicative checks and eliminate non-tariff barriers disguised as levies or excise quirks—long the bane of cross-border SMEs.

Why it matters: the Kenya–Uganda axis is the spine of the Northern Corridor, feeding South Sudan, eastern DRC and Rwanda. When Malaba backs up, East Africa’s import bills and shelf prices feel it within days. The OSBP model—co-located customs, immigration, standards and security—was designed to prevent exactly these choke points. Lately, transporters have alleged “shadow” inspections and periodic ICT outages that push clearances offline, erasing OSBP gains.

The communiqué’s test will be enforcement. A 24-hour cleanup requires surge staffing and real-time coordination between customs, standards bureaus and police. The ministers’ promise to “restore normalcy at all cross-border points” is measurable: by mid-week, the queue length and clearance times at Malaba will either validate the reset—or expose bureaucratic inertia. Either way, the EAC’s credibility on non-tariff barriers is again on the clock.