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{
    "id": 86797,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/86797/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 197,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mwau",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 105,
        "legal_name": "John Harun Mwau",
        "slug": "harun-mwau"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. (a) I am aware that due to delay and costly storage charges, the cost of essential goods such as medicines escalate drastically. However, the Kenya Ports Authority allows five days free storage period for all imported goods. Importers, or their clearing agents, are encouraged to lodge their clearing documents and remove cargo within five days from the time of arrival. After this period, cargo starts accruing punitive storage costs as a way of discouraging importers from using the port as a storage area, which usually leads to port congestion, consequently delaying the ships waiting to offload at the port. For cases of goods like medicine which are of greater need to Kenyans, applications for waiver of storage charges can positively be considered by the Authority if there is any genuine reason which caused the delay to clear them within the free five days. (b) The provision of free storage days at the Jomo Kenya International Airport is based on the fact that air freight cargo should move rapidly through the airport, hence its transportation by air, which is a most rapid and expensive means of transport. At the policy level, the Government has launched a campaign through the National Single Window Programme to reduce the dwell time of the cargo at all entry and exit points in the country. The programme, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Transport at the Port of Mombasa and the JKIA, involves automation and phasing out of the manual system previously employed. Components of this project have been funded by the Government in partnership with the World Bank and the Singapore Government. Its outcome is to reduce the dwell time of cargo both at the Port of Mombasa and at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. To increase the free storage days at the JKIA from two days to five days would revert the situation back to the past, where shipping lines and airlines would start levying delay charges, thereby defeating the Government policy on efficiency in clearing goods and services at Kenya’s entry points. The Kenya Airports Authority, as the airport operator, has outsourced the processes of storage to concessionaires, namely the Kenya Airways Cargo, Swissport Kenya Limited, Transglobal Cargo Centre and Siginon Freight Cargo Centre. These are private entities, which are independent operators and are not subject to direct control by the Government. It would not be in the best interests of the country for the Government to increase the free storage days from two days to five days at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport."
}