Rwanda: Importers Turn to Dar Port As Kenya Election Draws Closer

Officials at the Kenyan Ports Authority fear that the upcoming general elections could have a negative impact on regional trade.

The Kenyan Ports Authority revealed that they are experiencing a reduction in volume of goods handled through Mombasa port, the main gateway for imports and exports from and to all regional countries.

According to the port’s senior public relations officer, Sylvan Mghanga, traders anticipate violence, thus they fear of losing out.

The Kenyan general elections are slated for March 4, 2013.

“We have started noticing reductions in import volumes. Traders are conscious about the elections period and we should expect little imports beginning January next year”, he said in an exclusive interview with The New Times.

He observed that last year, the imports were increasing by 20 per cent compared to 4 per cent this year, adding that in January they expect total reduction, meaning that few imports would pass through the Mombasa port.

The drop in imports means that some goods will not be available on the market, which could trigger price hikes.

Petroleum and other related oil products are some of the goods that expected to be scarce in the region.

Mombasa port apparently has the capacity to handle over 600,000 containers (21m tones) per year. On daily basis it offloads 2000 containers of imported and exported products.

However, statistics indicate that though it’s the largest port to handle most imports, the exports are still stumpy where 200,000 containers are exported per year meaning that the region depends on imports as this creates big trade imbalance.

Violence in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 more displaced marred the 2007 elections, thus leading to regional traders incurring losses estimated in billions.

Till now thirteen claimants, are demanding for more than US$47.5 million as losses incurred as a result of the election violence.

Some importers have now opted to use the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam.

Mombasa port serves regional countries of Uganda, Rwanda Burundi, eastern DRC, south Sudan and some parts of northern Tanzania.

Robert Kalisa Zimulinda, a Rwandan clearing and forwarding agent in Mombasa, said that many agents have shifted to Dar-es-salaam owing to the many bottlenecks at Mombasa.