MOMBASA, Kenya, Sep 20 – Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir held a meeting on Monday with port stakeholders to seek clarity on the progress of reverting operations to Mombasa.
In his inauguration speech, President William Ruto issued a directive that all port operations should be reverted back to Mombasa.
Even so, clearing agents in the country said the Kenya Ports Authority(KPA) is yet to issue a public notice to inform the importers and shipping agents that services have been reverted back to Mombasa.
In a bid to address the problem, Nassir held a closed-door meeting with port stakeholders that include; the Clearing and Forwarding Association, the Kenya Transporters Association, and the Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA) in his office.
In a statement, Nassir said the meeting was to assess the state of implementation of this directive.
“President William Ruto issued a presidential directive last week on the reversion of port services to the county of Mombasa. I welcomed this move as a positive step in the right direction towards reviving the economy of the region,” said Nassir.
“We are pleased to find that there has been progress but there needs to be a concerted effort by KPA to limit excess bureaucracy and red tape that is hampering businesspeople from working.”
Nassir said they will continue consulting regularly as they look forward to full implementation for the benefit of coastal people.
He said thousands of people had lost jobs after the government made it mandatory to ferry all goods to Nairobi and other hinterlands through the Standard Gauge Railway.
KIFWA national chair Roy Mwanthi, said KPA must issue a public notice to shipping lines and importers on the debacle of the nomination of cargo.
“KPA must come out publicly and announce through a notice that the earlier directive has been vacated in compliance with the presidential directive,” said Mwanthi.
In March 2019, KPA issued a directive that all transit cargo will be cleared from either Nairobi or Naivasha Inland Container Depots. The cargo was to be ferried via the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR)
This locked out importers from deciding their preference in cargo clearance after KPA nominated Nairobi ICD.
The directive triggered protests from the transporter and clearing agents, but it was never reversed, despite several street demonstrations and court cases.
Nassir (then Mvita MP) joined freight handlers in holding weekly protests and petitioning Parliament as they complained that Uhuru’s policy restricted road transporters to use the railway, half loads while maintaining the previous fees, making it more expensive.
