Friends of the Rail Forum

Owners of trucks plying trade on Mombasa road are staring massive losses while their drivers face loss of income in wake of new directive to move cargo through the standard gauge railway.

This follows Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Ports Authority’s (KPA) directive to have all cargo transported through SGR to the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi in a move that eliminates trucks from the lucrative trade.

“All imported cargo for delivery to Nairobi and the hinterland shall be conveyed by standard gauge railway and cleared at the inland container depot – Nairobi,” said the two agencies in the notice...

Parliament has summoned Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia over a directive that forces importers to use the standard gauge railway (SGR) for goods coming to Nairobi and beyond from the Mombasa port...

Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir said the order by the KRA and the KPA will effectively kill container freight stations along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway, cripple transporters and force closure of warehouses, leading to massive job losses.

The government has suspended a directive that required that all cargo from Mombasa be ferried using the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).

The suspension followed a meeting between stakeholders, with government officials saying that it would pave way for stakeholder consultations...

The case for shifting freight from road to rail cannot be gainsaid. Where people in authority go wrong is when they assume that such a fundamental policy shift can be achieved by fiat...