Countries in the East African hinterland, especially Uganda and Rwanda, have been making very unhappy noises about long-distance truck drivers, as they have now become super-spreaders of the new coronavirus.

“Their drivers gather at truck stops, weighbridges and customs points, socialising at lodges, restaurants and with sex workers who ply the busy routes linking the port cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

“With most East African countries under strict restrictions to curb the coronavirus, truck drivers are among the few allowed to circulate as they ferry essential goods across the region.

Faced with a similar problem of coronavirus-spreading truck drivers, it was reported a few days ago that Zambia fell back to its sex workers to help trace people who had contracted new infections at the town of Nakonde, near its border with Tanzania.

Additionally, because drivers go sowing their wild oats along the truck corridors, and many of the residents of these towns are social rebels who have broken away from conservative and traditional settings, outcasts, and worldly adventurers, the people born in these places are often the most “tribeless”.