By Kibiwott Koross
Kenya: Senior Government officials are colluding with an inspection agency to falsify documentation in a racket for importation of overage vehicles, The Standard has established.
An international motor vehicle inspection company is accused of allowing importation of overage vehicles into the country.
Questions have been raised why Japan Export Vehicle Inspection Centre Company Limited (Jevic), one of the companies contracted by Kenya Bureau of Standards to conduct pre-shipment inspection to ensure compliance to Kenyan standards for all goods destined for Kenya, has failed to detect vehicles with falsified documents.
Jevic conducts the pre-export roadworthiness inspection of used motor vehicles from Japan and Dubai destined for use within Kenya.
The law bars Kenyans from importing vehicles that are over eight years old.
Documents in our possession show a list of more than 115 motor vehicles that were impounded at the port of Mombasa with falsified year of manufacture.
The vehicles, our team has established, belong to well-connected individuals both in the Government and Kebs with some linked to the office of the Deputy President.
A source at the KRA Mombasa office said he had received a call from an unnamed individual from the office of the Deputy President to release four of the impounded vehicles and warned him of dire consequences should he fail to heed the directive.
“He warned me that I would face the music if I failed to release the cars but I he was adamant when I told him to talk with our head office in Nairobi,” said the source, who sought anonymity for fear of being victimised.
Investigate claim
When contacted, Emmanuel Talam, the Director of Communication in the Deputy President’s Office, promised to investigate the matter.
“I am not aware of such and it will be good to know the person. Meanwhile, we will investigate it,” he said.
An official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also said to have imported an overage car, according to a protest letter written to Kebs by Registrar of Motor Vehicles. The vehicle could not be registered since it does not conform to Kebs standard requirement.
Responding to the claims, Jevic International operations manager Aaron Treadaway said they were not responsible for the importation of the overage cars.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is now recommending the crushing of the more than 115 cars impounded in Mombasa.
Speaking to The Standard, the commission’s spokesman Yasin Amaro said it was unfortunate that a company given a job to protect Kenyans from buying overage vehicles is still allowed to operate in the country.
He said their preliminary investigations had showed that all the seized vehicles had their log books tampered with to show a different year of manufacture.
