An article that appeared in The Daily Monitor last Sunday, 09 April, under the title “Cargo scanner breakdown paralyses trade at Katuna”, implied that there were cargo truck delays due to technical issues with the truck scanner at the One-stop Border Post, Katuna, on the Ugandan side. But the Daily Monitor article appears to have overstated a minor issue that led to some trucks which were entering Uganda from Rwanda experiencing some delays at the Ugandan side of the border. The article says that “several trucks crossing from Rwanda to Uganda were stranded at Katuna border this past week after the cargo scanner was plagued by technical glitches.” The paper said about twenty cargo trucks entering Uganda were affected though, it added, trucks exporting goods to Rwanda were not affected as they are not required to be scanned at Katuna. An inquiry by our reporter has shown that there were no scanner glitches at all. A senior Ugandan official who was quoted by the Monitor – Stephen Ojiambo the officer-in-charge of Uganda Revenue Authority supervision services in Western Region – too refuted claims that the cargo scanner at Katuna border was malfunctioning. “For the last few days we have been doing system upgrades on our cargo scanner and by Friday morning, we were almost done with the tests, Ojiambo said. That means that by the end of the day there were no issues with the scanner, and cargo traffic was proceeding smoothly. The New Times has also reliably learned that Rwandan customs officials engaged their Ugandan counterparts on the matter, to iron out any small problems. It became clear however that the movement of trucks is going on with no problem at all, and there has been no disruption in trade. “Our customs officials and their counterparts on the Ugandan side met and agreed on measures to address the small problem that was causing delays,” said Sam Kabera, Assistant Commissioner in charge of customs operations at Rwanda Revenue Authority. “There should be no cause for alarm. Traders at the Gatuna-Katuna border should go about their business as usual,” Kabera added. Observers have noted that trade between the two counties has rebounded, after close to a three-year lull between February 2019 and January 2022.
