Most truck drivers have health conditions, says State agency

Long haul Trucks along the Nairobi - Mombasa road transporting cargo. [File, Standard]

An intergovernmental agency has sounded an alarm on the health of truck drivers who move cargo from the Port of Mombasa.

The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority yesterday said 60 per cent of the drivers have health conditions.

Executive Secretary John Deng Diar said the drivers underwent tests on eyes, high blood pressure and diabetes, among others, during a road safety campaign in April last in Malaba, Busia County.

The corridor is patronised by between 2,000 and 3,000 truck drivers daily.

Speaking in Mombasa ahead of a regional conference on transport corridors and health to be held between December 2 and 4 in Nairobi, Dr Diar said the agency was seeking interventions and policies to support the drivers and communities they interact with along the corridor that serves Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Director for Private Sector Investment Promotion Denis Muganga said the agency was working with North Star Alliance to provide primary healthcare.

North Star runs blue containers along the corridor and shares data with referral hospitals from its integrated health management system. “North Star Alliance has been managing data on different ailments that is collected from the truck drivers daily,” he said.

He noted that the private sector has been active in establishing roadside wellness stations.

“They have been buying land and providing roadside stations. Some have been providing sanitary facilities along the corridor,” he said.

Diar said the roadside wellness centres offer low-barrier and low-cost response to transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

“The North Star Alliance broad healthcare package covers primary healthcare, including malaria, tuberculosis and emerging non-communicable diseases, HIV testing and treatment, sexual and reproductive health and rights, behaviour change communication and health education,” he said.

The authority called on the drivers to be responsibility to the communities they interact with, and asked truck owners to take responsibility for the health of their staff.

Diar said they would train 1,000 truck drivers in health matters. “We want the drivers to report their health concerns to the employers. We want to mainstream of the issue of drivers’ health. Most importantly is that the problem has been identified,” he said.

The conference aims to foster synergies among stakeholders and promote health, trade and economic development along Africa’s transport corridors.

Delegates from 10 countries in Africa and elsewhere are expected, with the authority promising to lobby for mainstreaming of health welfare for drivers and communities along the Northern Corridor, which has faced the challenges of Covid-19 and Ebola, among others