Moses Nampala
1 July 2009
Kampala — AUTHORITIES at Malaba border in Tororo are not aware of a swine flu screening exercise purported to have started today.
The officer in charge of immigration, Robert Kanuma, on Tuesday said he had not received any communication that travellers crossing into the country from Kenya should be subjected to a check-up of the swine flu.
"I have not seen officials from the Ministry of Health and do not know of any dispatched consignment of kits to be used in the exercise,' Kanuma said.
Press reports had quoted health minister Stephen Mallinga saying people coming into Uganda from the neighbouring Kenya at the border points of Malaba, Busia and Lwakaka had to be subjected to medical check-ups effective today.
This followed reports that a British national had been found infected with the dreaded ailment on arrival at Jomo Kenyattta Airport in Kenya.
However, no screening exercise could be noticed when The New Vision visited Malaba border customs point on Tuesday morning.
By 10:00am, eight buses from Nairobi to Kampala had already been cleared by the immigration office.
"We carried out our routine immigration check-up exercises, and not any thing to do with swine flu," said Kanuma.
Over 150 cargo trucks and new units from Kenya had already been cleared by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
"Drivers of cargo trucks and new units have not been subjected to any kind of medical test since morning," URA staff, who declined to be named, said.
The deputy officer in charge of Malaba Border Police Station, Dominic Manyi, also said: "We are not aware of any swine flu screening exercise.'
However, detectives at the lower gate of the border area said officials from the Ministry of Health wrote down their names last month, saying they were registering them for a swine flu training workshop, but they never heard from them again.
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