Clearing agents elect new officials for association

The Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA) has new officials.

During elections held on Tuesday in Nairobi members elected Mombasa businessman Roy Mwanthi as the national chairman. Mr Mwanthi has been serving as Mombasa branch Kifwa chairperson and now takes over from Mr William Ojonyo who had been at the helm of the association for the last one year.

Mr Levi Kinoti was elected vice chairman with Charles Kariuki being the national secretary.

Christine Mukangi is the national treasury while Abud Jamal and Madrine Wangechi were elected as board members.

Mr Kariuki is the Kifwa Nairobi branch chairman while Mr Kinoti is a board member a for the Nairobi branch.

With port efficiency still a major concern, the newly elected team has vowed to push to an end the bottlenecks delaying cargo delivery both at the Mombasa port and the Inland Container Depot (ICDN).

Mr Mwanthi told Shipping that as cargo players, their concern is how goods can be faster cleared to protect importer from incurring storage charges.

“Kifwa is one of the main stakeholders in the cargo clearance. No cargo can leave the port without the involvement of clearing agent,” said Mr Mwanthi.

“We have set up a programme to meet top Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) commissioners to sit in a roundtable to and all other government cargo interveners.”

Cargo dwell time, he said is currently 12 days at the ICDN as opposed to the four free days given by Kenya Ports Authority (KPA). This means very imported container pays storage, marshalling and release charge.

“In terms of cargo clearance, if KPA can adjust thefree period then that can alleviate the suffering of common Kenyan,” he said.