Uganda-bound cars rotting at Mombasa Port

Aug 26, 2007

THOUSANDS of cars imported to Uganda have been vandalised, while several others are rotting away at the Mombasa port. In a report to Parliament last week, the legislators on the public accounts committee, were stunned to discover that thousands of the cars were not collected due to high taxes and hi

By Mary Karugaba

THOUSANDS of cars imported to Uganda have been vandalised, while several others are rotting away at the Mombasa port.

In a report to Parliament last week, the legislators on the public accounts committee, were stunned to discover that thousands of the cars were not collected due to high taxes and high storage fees.

“We could not believe that thousands of cars destined for Uganda are rotting in Mombasa. They are new models but most of them have no tyres, lights, engines and other body parts. I am surprised that nobody seems to care,” complained Ssebuliba Mutumba, the deputy vice-chairperson of the committee.

The MPs were on a fact-finding mission to Kenya to establish the state of Uganda’s property abroad.

Mutumba also alleged that some of the cars were being resold to other countries.
“We are investigating the allegations that some of the cars were donated to one of the countries,” he said.

Moses Ssegawa, a car importer, said: “The biggest problem we have is high taxes. They are sometimes higher than the cost of the car. Then you have to pay storage fees per day, which is also very high.”
Meanwhile, Joel Ogwang adds that the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) plans to auction 4,000 containers and 8,000 cars belonging to the Uganda traders, the Kampala City Traders’ Association (KACITA) publicist disclosed over the weekend.

Issa Sekitto said the move followed failure by the traders to claim them.
“Our traders have failed to clear their containers and cars, so KPA is planning to auction them,” he said.

Sekitto criticised unscrupulous clearing and forwarding agents, for delaying the documentation of cargo, resulting into increased costs.
He said KACITA, with 80,000 members, use Mombassa port to store and transport 85% of their cargo. Sekitto was speaking during a tour of the proposed site for the $250m (about sh437.5b) dry-port project to be constructed at the Malaba border post in Tororo.

The first phase of the Great Lakes CTS-Uganda project would consume between $100m (about sh175b) and $150m (about sh262.5b), according to Capt. P. Musoke, the project manager.

Once operational, he said, costs and the duration of transporting cargo from Mombasa to Kampala would drop.

“It is a 10-year concession project. We believe that when finalised, it will take only seven days to transport cargo from Mombasa to Kampala,” he urged.

Kasim Omar, the head of the clearing and forwarding association, said with the fast-tracking of the East African Federation, the project would ease regional trade.

“Much of Uganda’s exports end up in South Sudan. There will be ease in accessing markets in Rwanda and Burundi when the dry-port is in place,” he said.

Omar said the project would also ease the congestion at Mombasa and urged the Government to support the private sector because it is the engine of development.

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