Meanwhile, the Kenyan government has said that all transit cargo will have to move by the Standard Gauge Railway from Mombasa to Naivasha where truckers will pick it for delivery to Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan, a measure that takes effect on June 1, 2020
The new move effectively
cuts off 600 kilometres that truck drivers would have to drive if they were to
pick the goods directly from Mombasa port.
Kenya said in a statement yesterday that some of the cargo will move on the old
metre-gauge railway directly to Tororo or Kampala, while fuel will be
transported by pipeline to Kisumu and thereafter by water on Lake Victoria to
Portbell or Jinja. This starts on June 1, according to a letter by James
Macharia, the Kenya Minister in Charge of Transport.
Revenue authorities from Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, and Kenya will have to be accommodated at Naivasha inland deport to clear goods on time.
Kenya had tried to use water and rail but truck owners had protested the move saying it was taking them out of business.
Uganda was already transporting some fuel products by water after the country said last year that it had completed a 14-tank storage facility in Entebbe to store 70 million litres of fuel. END