The Cabinet secretary for the East African Community yesterday intervened to end the Namanga border stand-off that had paralysed cross-border trade.

Operations at the Namanga One Stop Border Point on the Kenya-Tanzania line have been paralysed for the past two weeks as the two countries disagreed on how to test truck drivers

Tanzanian authorities have reconsidered an earlier decision rejecting the testing of the country's truckers for Covid-19 at the Namanga crossing.

Tanzanian drivers maintained they could not be retested at Namanga while Kenyan health officials stood their ground and refused to accept clearance certificates from the neighbouring country.

However, on Wednesday, East African Community and Regional Development CS Adan Mohamed said the two trade partners had reached an agreement, saying the decision by Tanzanian authorities to allow truckers to be tested is a major economic breakthrough.

Mr Mohamed said Kenya had agreed to hasten the testing of drivers at the border crossing and process the results within 24 hours to safeguard farm produce from rotting.