All transit cargo destined for Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan will be transported either on Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) for clearance at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Naivasha or Metre Gauge Railway to Tororo/Kampala from 1st June 2020.

In a statement Friday, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development James Macharia says all transit cargo railed to ICD Naivasha will then be collected by trucks to the partner states via Busia or Malaba.

He further, said the fuel products will be transported by pipeline to Kisumu and thereafter by lake Victoria to Port Bell or Jinja.

he CS also directed that all the transit cargo/containers transported on SGR will be armed only at ICD at Naivasha to be tracked through the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System; and all exports (both full and empty exports) not railed on metre gauge railway will be delivered to ICD for railage to the Port of Mombasa.

“The Heads of State, Their Excellencies President Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda; President Uhuru Kenyatta of the Republic of Kenya; President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of the Republic of Uganda and President Salvar Maryardit Kiir of the Republic of South Sudan during their Consultative Meeting of the East African Community held by Video Conference on 12th May 2020 considered the current status of the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the region and directed the Ministers responsible for Health, Transport, and EAC Affairs to adopt a Digital Surveillance and Tracking System for drivers and also as the Focal Persons to immediately work on a Regional mechanism for monitoring of truck drivers to reduce the impact of the Pandemic.” He said.

“Following the directive by the Heads of State, the Partner States Ministers in charge of Transport, in recognition of the need to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic within the Region, have considered appropriate cross border transportation modalities to reduce human traffic movement without impacting negatively on transportation of cargo across the borders.” He added.

The Nairobi–Naivasha SGR Project is part of the proposed Mombasa–Nairobi–Malaba /Kampala Standard Gauge Railway Project and therefore, the Mombasa – Naivasha SGR, which has overall length of 600 kilometre up to the Inland Container Depot at Naivasha will reduce the road distance to three Partner States of Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan by 600 kilometres, and will subsequently reduce interactions along the corridor and thus facilitate the containment of the Covid-19.

“Since Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) as the lead agency on port matters has provided requisite office accommodation to the Kenya Revenue Authority, Uganda Revenue Authority, Rwanda Revenue Authority and the South Sudan Revenue Authority, deployment of the staff to the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Naivasha is expected to be finalised to ensure smooth clearance of the cargo.” Noted the CS.

Source: KBC

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