The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has begun operations of returning port services to Mombasa following President William Ruto’s instructions during his inauguration.
In its bid to ensure effectiveness, the management has started in-house reorganisation by employing more workers in the affected departments.
“There has been no more Container Nomination Team meetings and all Mombasa container clearance requests are being allowed. We are fully committed to totally implement the presidential directive as we wait for further guidelines,” Patrick Makau, a senior Operations Officer said.
Several stakeholders who pressed the nomination and clearing of cargo were, however, not content with the speed of the transfer and have urged the government to quicken the process.
Roy Mwanthi, the Kenya International Forwarding and Warehousing Association (KIFWA) Chairman complained that KPA has not provided any communication to shipping lines to brief importers to use Mombasa as their clearing point.
“Two or three years ago, KPA ordered shipping line agents to nominate all cargo on transit to be cleared in Nairobi. This will not change until communication is issued to revoke the order,” Mwanthi said.
Newton Wang’oo, the Kenya Transport Association (KTA) Chairman said the agency will officially write to the government as no truck has been allowed to pick up cargo from the port.
“We haven’t seen any changes yet and we plan to seek an audience with the KPA management for updates,” he said.
In 2019, former President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the extended Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) freight services from Mombasa to the Naivasha Inland Container Depots (ICD).
His government also put in place innumerable strategies to protect the SGR which resulted in many people losing their jobs at the Coast.
The move to revert the clearance of goods and other attendant operational issues to the port will therefore restore thousands of jobs.