County Secretary clears air on Busia border point’s Sh400 entry fee

By Peter Ochieng

Busia County Secretary Oscar Juma has made a clarification, over the Sh400 levy it is charging trucks entering Busia, through the Malaba border point.

Juma said the Sh400 is an entry fee, and not parking fee as it had been earlier alleged.

He noted that the decision to charge trucks entering Busia via Malaba municipality was enacted into law, after undergoing the right procedures including public participation with stakeholders.

The proposal, he said, was then factored into the 2023 Finance Bill, before being passed into law.

Addressing the stakeholders in Malaba on Wednesday, the County Secretary revealed that the county government engaged representatives of the truck drivers and the clearing agents, who agreed to the proposal.

“The issue of own source revenue from the trucks entering Busia border points of Malaba and Busia had raised auditing queries for a long time,” he said.

On availability of abolition facilities for truck drivers in Malaba, Juma revealed that the county already has functioning facilities in various parts of the town, with more facilities set to be put in place.

On his part, Teso North Deputy County Commissioner Solomon Chitai promised to work closely with the county government, to make sure that the law is fully implemented and that the collection is done in the right way.

Abel Namenge, one of the clearing agents at Malaba border said they support the new levy.

“My appeal to the county government is that you use proper communication channels including erecting billboards along the Malaba - Bungoma and Busia-Kisumu highways for drivers to clearly get the message on time and make payments, before entering Busia or Malaba municipalities to reduce traffic snarl-ups,” he added.

There has been a challenge in collecting the revenue since the law came into effect on Monday, with some resistance witnessed from sections of truck drivers along Malaba – Bungoma highway.