Freight station owners sue KPA over South Sudan cargo order

 

Cargo at the port of Mombasa. The Kenya Ports Authority says it did not craft a controversial contract for handling South Sudan cargo. FIL

By Eunice Machuhi

Freight station owners in Mombasa have sued the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) for nominating one clearing firm to handle all cargo headed to South Sudan.

The station owners filed a judicial review application at the High Court seeking an order to quash KPA’s directive that appointed Panda Clearing and Forwarding Company to clear the South Sudan-bound cargo.

The Container Freight Stations Association (CFSA) has also sought an order to ban KPA from implementing the directive issued on September 27.

The station owners said it would be impractical and a logistical nightmare for a single entity to clear and handle the high volumes of cargo headed to South Sudan.

In June, KPA announced that South Sudan had emerged as a key transit destination, taking second place with 11.6 per cent share of all transit cargo that the Container Freight Stations (CFS) were handling.

CFSA executive officer Daniel Nzeki in a sworn affidavit said KPA had discriminatively and unfairly locked all other CFSA members from participating in the South Sudan market and would, therefore, deny them a legitimate income.

KPA’s notice he claimed, had not disclosed any reasons for giving such instructions and neither had it cited legitimate authority from the government approving the arrangement.

“The respondents’ directive was unilaterally made and did not consult or involve stakeholders and port community concerned and affected,” he said.

The applicants claimed that locking them out amounts to restrictive trade practices.