George Aduwi, the Chief Manager, of Inland Container Depot in Nairobi and Commissioner of Customs and Border Control in a statement gave a 30-day ultimatum to owners of 88 containers lying idle in the custody of Customs Warehouse Keeper at the depot.
Aduwi in the statement added that every owner will be required to claim the items or lose them through public auction to be held on July 31, August 1 and August 2 online.
Instructively, 19 of the said containers were bound for South Sudan but were being held in the country. One was destined for Uganda while the rest were destined for Kenya but remained uncollected.
"Pursuant to the provisions of section 42 of the East African Community Customs Management Act, notice is given that unless the under-mentioned goods are entered and removed from the custody of Customs Warehouse Keeper, Inland Container Depot Nairobi within thirty (30) days of this notice, they may be sold by public auction on 31st July 2024, 1st and 2nd August 2024 via online auction ," read part of the notice.
Some of the South Sudan-bound containers arrived in the country as early as April 21, 2023, while others arrived recently on February 11, 2024.
On the other hand, the goods destined for Uganda arrived on January 5, 2024, while those destined for Kenya were being held at the depot from as early as October 2, 2023.
The Customs and Border Control Department revealed that some of the items in the containers included; spare parts, coils, pharmaceutical goods, face masks, used clothes, garden seat covers, tiles and accessories, toilet articles or porcelain and China.
Other items included; biscuits, safety shoes, office furniture washing machine, used desks, mattresses, used fridge, bibles, alcoholic beverages, empty gas cylinders, relief goods, refurbished paper machines, high-density polyethene, steel coils, and Brazilian brown sugar among others.
Some owners of the 88 shipping containers included; Bible Baptist Church Kawangware, Secretary General Kenya Red Cross Society Headquarters, and UNICEF South Sudan
When the said period lapses, interested bidders will be allowed to purchase the items through an auction where the owners will lose ownership of the items.
This comes as Kenyan truck drivers oppose the new Electronic Cargo Tracking Note fee imposed by South Sudan leading to congestion at the port. The East African country introduced a Ksh42,200 (USD350) levy for all goods destined for South Sudan.
The levy was opposed by traders resulting in the group from Kenya suing South Sudan.
Roy Mwanthi, the Chairman of Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association told Kenyans.co.ke on different occasions that the levy should be charged to South Sudan nationals rather than the Kenyans drivers transporting the goods.
"If you pay the levy, no one will reimburse us since we had already agreed on the amount of fee to charge for transporting the cargo to Juba," he stated in March.
