Blame game at port as cargo piles up

By Philip Mwakio

With cargo backlog crisis looming at the Mombasa port, importers and exporters are expected to foot hefty bills due to demurrage, transport costs, and lost opportunities.

Maritime expert, Mr Mohamed Ali Sheikh Amin blames laxity on the part of the port management over the current cargo pile up, which has the potential to further fuel inflation in terms of high cost of doing business.

The unfolding crisis has led to huge delays in clearing cargo destined for Rwanda and other regional states that depend on the facility for their international trade.

Reactions have been swift, with stakeholders pointing a finger at each other for the mess. The port of Mombasa has 20,000 cargo containers lying at its facility.

While the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has exonerated itself from blame, port stakeholders think otherwise.

"KPA is well aware of the stiff competition with regards to efficiency in port business. Uganda is looking at Tanga – Tanzania’s second largest port after Dar-es -Salaam – to transport its goods due to bottlenecks at the Mombasa port,’’ reckons Amin.

He stressed the need for the Government to move fast and implement the development of the Dongo Kundu project, which will have a free port to address the recurrent congestion at the port.

KPA Managing Director, Gichiri Ndua, confirmed that there were 6,400 containers waiting to be taken out of the port.

The port’s sole container terminal has a holding capacity of 15,000 containers.

Another 5,500 containers destined for export were lying at the facility and had not been loaded onto vessels for onward shipment.

Market concerns

Ndua, while addressing a media conference at the KPA headquarters last week reckons that a further 6,900 containers have not been documented, while 1,300 containers are empty and only take up important space that could have been used for other purposes.

"A number of factors have played out leading to cargo build up... We are trying our level best to ensure clearance of the huge backlog,’’ explained the CEO.

The already bad situation is aggravated by heightened security following increased cases of undesirable cargoes finding its way through the port. A number of these illegal imports have been intercepted leading to tighter cargo scrutiny. "Contraband game trophies like ivory hauls were uncovered and this led to heightened cargo scrutiny adding to cargo clearance delays,’’ he said.

Former KPA Chief Executive, Abdalah Mwaruwa conceded that port congestion in January are not a completely new phenomena.

"When the holiday mood sets in, there is less activity on the side of cargo clearance despite ships arriving with cargo," explained Mwaruwa who served as port chief from January 2006 to August 2008 said.

He reiterated that it was up to the cargo owners to clear what they have imported in good time so as to avoid congestion.

But a conglomerate of clearing and forwarding agents in East Africa under the aegis of the Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Association (Feaffa) blame Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) leadership for failing to act promptly in handling the crisis.

"KPA is the landlord and is not in anyway charged with clearing and forwarding duties. While KRA has taken to issuing contradictory guidelines on cargo clearance, Kifwa leadership has failed to challenge such bureaucracies that hinder faster cargo clearance,’’ said Mr William Amole, Feaffa Kenya Representative.

Call to diversify

Ndua has reached out to transporters to diversify and take advantage of many opportunities that abound in port related businesses.

"We are projecting an increasing in cargo handling and this year, we are looking at not less than 800,000 teus to be handled,’’ he said.

The port chief explained that while most cargo off-take at the port went by road, rail transport managed a paltry five per cent.

Despite the cargo backlog, Ndua explained that they are able to offload in excess of between 1200-1300 containers on a daily basis and stack up to four to five rows high.

" Let cargo owners come and collect their cargoes in time. Largely, all premium port land should not be used as storage area,’’ he added.