Court halts order on compulsory use of SGR for cargo

The High court has suspended notice issued by Transport CS Macharia making it compulsory from 1st June 2020 for goods detained for Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan be transported either on Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) for clearance at the Naivasha Inland Container Depot (ICD).

This is until a petition filed is determined.

According to the petitioner Okiya Omtatah the claim that all transporting on the SGR for clearance at the Naivasha ICD all transit cargo/containers imported through the Port of Mombasa and destined for Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan will help contain the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is not backed by any scientific study.

Omtatah said the notice by the CS had absolutely no basis in law, and breaches express provisions of the Constitution and of national legislation.

He added that the CS does not have any power or any capacity in law to issue the impugned notice in the manner he purports to do contrary to the Constitution adding that there was no public participation leading to the publication of impugned notice.

The orders were issued by Justice Pauline Nyamweya.

“The leave so granted herein to institute these judicial review proceedings shall operate as a stay do operate as a stay and/or suspension of the Notice on Transit Cargo published by the 1st Respondent on 22nd May 2020 on the official Facebook Page of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, pending the hearing and determination of the ex parte Applicants’ substantive Notice of Motion or further orders by this Court,”read court papers.

All transit cargo railed to ICD Naivasha was then be collected by trucks to the partner states via Busia or Malaba.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) had already commenced movement of transit cargo from the Port of Mombasa to the Naivasha ICD in a move aimed at decongesting and improving efficiency at the coastal port.

The taxman says the implementation of the move means that affected cargo owners and their clearing agents will have to clear and pick their goods at the Naivasha Inland Container Depot.

The facility is expected to boost storage of cargo destined to Uganda, South Sudan, Northern Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.

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.