Covid-19: Uhuru, Kagame, Museveni Strike Deal on Porous Border

President Uhuru Kenyatta confers with other African leaders during a virtual meeting at State House Nairobi on April 30, 2020.
President Uhuru Kenyatta confers with other African leaders during a virtual meeting at State House Nairobi on April 30, 2020.
PSCU

Rwandan President and incumbent East African Community (EAC) Chairperson Paul Kagame on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 convened a virtual meeting with leaders from the region to discuss measures to cushion the region from Covid-19.

Present at the meeting were President Uhuru Kenyatta, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Salva Kiir of South Sudan.

The leaders prioritised the uninterrupted movement of goods in the region and the management of cross-border spread of Covid-19 as the main agenda.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame walks alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta during the Umwiherero Conference in Kigali, Rwanda on March 11, 2019
Rwandan President Paul Kagame walks alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta during the Umwiherero Conference in Kigali, Rwanda on March 11, 2019
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They acknowledged the challenge posed by cross-border trade in the fight against Coronavirus, especially the emergence of truck drivers as a high-risk carrier population.

The Heads of State, therefore, tasked their respective state agencies responsible for health, transport and EAC affairs to roll-out border screening and testing measures especially for truck drivers that do not compromise cross-border movement of goods.

President  Kenyatta emphasised the need for collective EAC interventions against the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“A unified stand is what we need to combat this pandemic in the region," President Kenyatta told his regional peers, adding that contact tracing had helped Kenya to isolate and treat those infected by the virus.

“We continue to actively enforce contact tracing which has proved to be very effective in identifying those who have come into contact with infected persons,” President Kenyatta stated.

The Heads of State expressed satisfaction with measures taken so far by regional governments in managing Covid-19 and thanked the EAC Secretariat as well as the Council of Ministers for ensuring the region was able to minimise cross-border spread of the virus while ensuring the uninterrupted movement of goods.

The leaders acknowledged the slowdown caused by the global pandemic on the region’s key economic sectors and urged member states to prioritise local production of essential supplies needed to combat Covid-19.

Further, the Heads of State encouraged EAC countries to invest more in agricultural production, agro-processing and value addition to empower the sector to act as an import substitute in a period when global trade was suppressed by the public health crisis.

The leaders singled out Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as the sector with the highest potential to cushion the region against adverse economic effects of the global Coronavirus pandemic and recommended the establishment of special-purpose financing schemes to support the sector.

President Kenyatta and his peers extended their gratitude to regional development partners including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) for their continued support to EAC states in combating the virus.

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