Letters

Address congestion at container depot urgently

sea

A ship offloads cargo at the Mombasa port. FILE PHOTO | NMG

A few weeks ago, clearing and forwarding agents at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Embakasi, Nairobi, warned that unless the authorities move to improve their efficiency, the pile-up of uncollected consignments would soon suffocate the depot.

Less than a month later, this predicament is now a serious and bad reality.

Activity at the premises has increased given that about 600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) are now coming to the dry port via the standard gauge railway (SGR) daily.

The depot is not able to release a similar number outwards on any day. Kenya Railways Corporation recently published notices asking importers to urgently pick up their cargo. This did not help.

The Kenya Ports Authority (KRA) has also reduced the storage free days from nine to four with effect from May 1 in a bid to pile pressure on importers to fast-track the clearing process. This has not helped either but instead has added financial pain to the importers.

As a result of the pile-up, clearance activity at the ICD has become slow and tedious.

Importers or exporters now have to wait longer than usual to access their cargo and pay additional money.

As International Movers, this has largely affected our timelines, because of it quite unpredictable on how long cargo will have to wait at the port. We do not know how to exactly guide our clients most of who are foreigners and many coming for the first time to Kenya.

My assessment of the problem is that while the SGR is fast in bringing the containers from Mombasa port to the inland depot, the clearance efficiency by the Kenya Revenue Authority and other agencies such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards is not good enough.

This inefficiency is nothing new. However, air cargo coming via Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is usually cleared within two days. Why can’t the system at the airport be replicated at the depot? The processes are all the same!

Second, the demand for haulage trucks at the ICD is much higher than supply. Any transporter wishing to carry containers from ICDE must be registered with the KPA, vetted and have their details captured in the Kilindini Waterfront Automated Terminal Operating System before they can be allowed to operate.

At the moment the registered transporters in the system are fewer than the containers that need to be carried.

These transporters have also increased their charges and seem to be the only beneficiaries of the current chaos. It would help if more transporters were registered.

Third, while the KPA works 24 hours, other agencies which are very critical in the clearing process such as the KRA, Kebs and banks, among others only work up to 5 p.m. All the agencies need some sort of harmony in working hours and for sure other agencies and partners need to give more.

The ICD is located within a fenced area of 18.7ha at Embakasi and has a capacity of 180,000 TEUs per annum.

Other than significantly decongesting the Mombasa port, the Embakasi dry port has also facilitated the diversion of heavy container traffic from the road to rail, in turn minimising road damage and carnage due to to heavy trucks.

However, the current problem needs to be addressed quickly so that we can all count the SGR to be of good benefit to the majority.

Cosmas Kamuyu via email