Port Congestion in Kenya
January 2, 2007 by SwizStick
Filed under QuickNews, Seafreight
Via AllAfrica.com:
The Kenya Ports Authority says the number of undocumented containers have piled up at the port.
By yesterday, more than 5,559 such containers were at the port as KPA appealed to their owners to clear them.
Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association chairman Peter Mambembe, said the suspension by Kenya Revenue Authority had caught many agents offguard resulting in a pile-up.
“Following the suspension of three insurance firms from issuing security bonds, it has become very difficult and expensive to secure new bonds from a firm issuing them,” he said.
Mr Mambembe claimed that besides, the insurance firm charging exorbitant fees- about three per cent of a container’s total value- it also demanded collateral from some agents.
“This has made it difficult for small scale clearing agents to secure security bonds for transit goods lying at the port,” he said.
KPA terminal manager James Rarieya issued a notice asking all cargo owners to ensure their containers are removed from the port within the stipulated time noting that delay in cargo clearance at the facility had hampered its operations.
He said the port had witnessed an upsurge of undocumented containers for the past one month because owners had not cleared them.
Mombasa is a major port and serves as a gateway for neighboring countries. In this case the cost and difficulty of securing security bonds has only exacerbated the typical year-end congestion at the port. If you ship cargo to and from or through Kenya, check with your logistics provider to see how things are moving and if they have contingency plans in place in case your cargo gets backed up at the port. I would hope that if you work with a provider who has a large enough presence in Kenya that they have the necessary capital and local expertise to secure the necessary security bonds to get the containers moving. If your provider has minimal experience in Kenya or is relying on a smaller local agent to get things done, things could get messy.
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