How porous borders pose a growing risk of Covid-19 infections

On paper, the international borders between Kenya and Tanzania in Kwale and Taita Taveta counties are shut to combat Covid-19 spread save for essential travel.

But in reality they are as open as the blue sky.

Lamu, also in the Coast, shares a boundary with Somalia on a sliver of territory at Ishakani, which is also closed.

For now the Kwale and Taita Taveta sections are more important for Kenya in the struggle against the virus due to the massive vehicle and human traffic flow between Kenya and Tanzania.

Lamu and southern Somalia are yet to record a positive case, but Kwale has recorded three, including one that directly came from northern Tanzania.

Taita Taveta is a major transit to export and import trade through Taveta town and, like Kwale whose official entry point is Lunga Lunga, suffers many unofficial and unpoliced exits.

Northern Tanzania’s viral load is now a direct threat to efforts to combat the virus in Kwale and Taita Taveta.

For Taita Taveta, the threat of infection is exacerbated by the Mombasa-Nairobi highway used by thousands of truck drivers en-route to and out of Mombasa or Tanzania.

On Monday, Taita Taveta County reported its first case of Covid-19 through the trucking business.

The patient, according to Health executive John Mwakima, was a Kenyan truck driver who travelled to Uganda on May 3 and was screened and tested while on transit at Malaba.

The concern is not only restricted to Taita Taveta and Kwale, but all other border counties seen as a weak link in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

In Nyanza, Migori county government has declared an all out war against the spread of the disease, days after it reported seven cases.

In Busia, Governor Sospeter Ojaamong recently lamented that the national government was being lenient to Ugandan nationals still entering the country to sell their merchandise.

The government has also been weighing options on whether to close the Kenya-Tanzania border at Namanga following a rise in number of infections.

In early April, county and national authorities established a screening facility at Lunga Lunga, fearing that the heavy civilian and vehicle traffic was a growing danger.

On April 25, Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya warned that the Kenya’s southern border was becoming a transmission route for the virus from Tanzania.

He said residents and Tanzanians were crossing at will, despite the rising disease burden in northern Tanzania.

As the month drew to a close, a businesswoman from Eldoret who had crossed from Tanzania to Kenya through Lunga Lunga border tested positive for Covid-19, sparking fears at the border point where thousands crossed daily.

In the last week of April, four people were placed under mandatory quarantine at Lunga Lunga Boys Secondary School after crossing into the country from Tanzania. They tested negative.

In Migori, county health officials say their efforts to contain the spread of the disease were hampered by continued human traffic from Tanzania through illegal border crossings where traders use cunning motorcycle riders to evade police roadblocks.

Sneaked out

County officials said they had by Monday put 129 people in quarantine and prepared more isolation centres, amid fears its proximity to Tanzania was also putting its neighbouring counties like Homa Bay, Kisii and Narok at risk.

Migori has recorded seven positive cases, the highest in Western Kenya, all of them having travelled from Tanzania. Five of these patients are truck drivers tested at the Isebania border point.

“There may be a controlled entry through the main border where only trucks ferrying food are being allowed through after the drivers are tested, but the real danger lurks along the porous border where some people are even bribing the police to cross,” said one offficial.

County Public Health Chief Officer Phidale Majiwa said several people, including 45 Migori County staff said to have been in contact with the seven cases, have been quarantined.

The county also quarantined 11 people who had arrived from Nairobi.

On Monday, eight people who sneaked out of the country to Tanzania and back were put under compulsory quarantine in Homa Bay County.

In Busia, David Mukabi, who is coordinating the fight against the pandemic in the region, said security officers were manning porous borders to prevent people from crossing to either country.

Dr Mukabi said his team was also focused on truck drivers coming into the country from Uganda.

“All illegal avenues that people can use to cross to Kenya from Uganda are currently being manned by security officers and this was agreed in our meetings,” he said.

At least 700 drivers use Busia border to come into the country while 2,000 use Malaba border.

Human traffic

Government Spokesman Cyrus Oguna, while on a tour of Namanga border on Tuesday, said closing the border is one among options being reviewed by the government.

“Human traffic to and from Tanzania continues to pose a challenge to efforts to combat the spread of Covid-19. Therefore our focus is on cross border. We are looking at many options, including closing the border point,” said Oguna.

He said in the past one week, the Kajiado County Department of Health has recorded an unprecedented rise in number of cases reported at the border points, with human traffic occasioned by cross border trading attributed to the upsurge.

Esther Somoire, Kajiado Health executive, told The Standard that so far 560 people have been tested, with nine positive cases reported in Kajiado.

On Monday, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman said all the nine cases recorded in Kajiado are from Kenyan truck drivers from Tanzania, raising concerns over increased infections at border counties.

Kenya and Ethiopia closed their common border in March, but reached an understanding that only import and export cargo should be allowed between the two countries.

On March 16, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed closed borders with all neighbouring countries, including Kenya, a move that affected cross border trade and movement of people in Moyale and Mandera counties.

Kenya followed suit a day later by closing the border stretching from Illeret in North Horr (Moyale in Marsabit) to Mandera town.

Kenya deployed the army on March 26 to dig trenches along illegal entry points in Moyale used by smugglers.

Marsabit County Commissioner Evans Achoki said the entire stretch of over 500km in Marsabit remained closed, adding that security personnel are patrolling Kenya’s side of the border round the clock.

[Reports by Renson Mnyamwezi, Nehemiah Okwembah, Weldon Kipkemoi, Caleb Kingw’ara, Protus Onyango, Ignatius Odanga, Ali Abdi and Peterson Githaiga]