High fuel prices hurt transport industry

By John Oyuke

Transport sector, which encompasses different routes of communication has continued to record mixed performance.

During 2008/09 financial year, Roads Maintenance Levy Fund collected Sh21.3 billion compared to Sh18.3 billion in 2007/08 financial year.

The 2009 Economic Survey Report released yesterday also indicated that growth of total earnings from road transport sub-sector expanded by 3.1 per cent last year from 9.7 per cent in 2007.

The growth in earnings was however constrained by the high fuel prices and reduced economic activities witnessed last year.

Earnings from road passenger segment contributed 55 per cent of the total earnings realised in the road transport industry last year.

The total number of reported traffic accidents dropped by 1,132 cases from 10,225 reported in 2007 to 9,093 last year.

Number of persons injured or killed through road accidents declined by 8.9 percent from 23,515 in 2007 to 21,420 last year.

The report attributed the decrease partly to improved conditions of major roads countrywide such as the ongoing re-carpeting of Mombasa-Nairobi and Nairobi-Kisumu highways.

The railway sub-sector continued dismal performance despite recent reforms, with freight tonnage transported decreasing by 23.4 percent from 2.3 million in 2007 to 1.8 million last year.

Revenue earned from cargo transportation dropped by 4.1 per cent to Sh4.3 billion last year compared to Sh4.4 billion earned in 2007.

The survey indicated that earnings from passenger transportation service stream similarly dropped substantially by 48.5 per cent.

It attributed the poor performance of the railway transport sub-sector to poor rail infrastructure, partly due to preference of major transporters to use roads to transport goods.

On traffic handled at main airports, passenger traffic dropped by 9.4 percent from 7.03 million passengers in 2007 to 6.38 million last year.