Importers want lasting solution for cargo pile-up

What you need to know:

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) have asked all cargo owners to clear their consignments within two weeks.
Any cargo that will remain uncollected within the waiver period will be auctioned or destroyed.

Importers and other stakeholders have welcomed the cargo charges waiver by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

Speaking in an interview day, the Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) said the move is commendable, but added that the government cargo interveners must up their game to end the cargo pile-up at the Internal Container Depot (ICD) in Nairobi.

“We welcome the waiver but nevertheless, we want the waiver to be the beginning of the efficiency at ICD. A waiver without addressing the bottlenecks will not help,” said Kifwa Chairman William Ojonyo.

“Containers continue to pile up because of lack of goodwill to evacuate containers by KRA because they continue to intervene on containers without any reason.”

Last week, the government issued a notice of storage waiver aimed at getting rid of the piled cargos.

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) have asked all cargo owners to clear their consignments within two weeks. Any cargo that will remain uncollected within the waiver period will be auctioned or destroyed.

In an advert published on local dailies, KPA and KRA said they have issued a waiver of storage charges and customs warehouse rent for long stay cargo for a period of 14 days effective Friday (September 28).

Mr Ojonyo said that there are about 3,500 overstay containers, out of which 500 have been held by the Kenya Burea of Standards (Kebs) for confirmation of quality.

“The other 3,000 containers have been held by KRA for multiple interventions by different department of KRA on the same consignment. Most of these containers belong to micro-small and medium sized companies, meaning they belong to small traders and medium sized traders who are not approved economic operators,” he said.

Mr Ojonyo said a lot needs to be done to address the issue. “As we speak, many importers have not been cleared. These containers are still being held by KRA. So you are given a waiver on the other hand but you cannot pick their containers because it is still being held by KRA. This is a problem,” he said.