NTV PANORAMA: Fuel crisis puts rail-water transport into sharp focus
We start off our 2022 edition of Panorama with a serious common-sense issue, or the lack of it, that has often left landlocked Uganda teetering on the edges of crisis, each time there is a hiccup at our border points with Kenya. It is coming to a month now since fuel prices shot up. The crisis was first occasioned by a logjam of fuel tankers at the Malaba and Busia borders after drivers went on strike over mandatory Covid-19 testing. This led to a countrywide supply glitch. But until the early 2000's the country’s precious cargo, including petroleum products, were hauled via rail-water links that remained operational even during the political strife of the 1970s and 1980s. However, this transport system was upended by the country's liberalisation process.
