Vehicle importers are counting losses running into billions of shillings following the delay of their shipments at the Mombasa port for the past four months.
The delay has been caused by three government agencies that is the; Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), who are confused over the eight-year age-limit rule.
The bone of contention is whether the agencies should use block year or the month the vehicles were manufactured to determine their ages.
Officials from Kebs had inspected the vehicles from their country of origin, cleared them and issued certificates of roadworthiness. However, KRA wants to use block year rather than the month of manufacture to determine age limit.
Kenya plans to phase out used cars, vans and minibusses from the second-hand market in two years' time.
At the start of 2019, the government advertised the implementation of the National Automotive Policy aimed at supporting locally assembled vehicles.
As it stands, cars manufactured in 2013 or any year that precedes that would not be allowed into the country after December 31, 2020.
The vehicles that are currently affected were all manufactured in 2013.
It takes between 26 to 30 days to sail from Japan to Kenya while vessels moving between Europe and Mombasa take between 20 and 40 days.
However, Car Importers Association of Kenya (CIAK) national chairman Peter Otieno noted that there were delays with this batch, hence causing the quagmire.
"In the eight sampled documents of the vehicles being held over the age limit debate between KRA, Kebs, NTSA, they indicate that the vehicles were shipped within the time frame but delayed to land at the port after spending more than two months in the sea as a result of covid-19," Otieno told Nation.
According to the UNEP report titled Used Vehicles and the Environment 2020, more than 95% of vehicles currently being added to Kenya’s rapidly growing light-duty vehicle fleet are imported used vehicles, mainly from Japan.
Countries prohibit imports of used vehicles for several reasons: environmental, health, and safety concerns. But they also do so to support and/or protect a domestic vehicle manufacturing industry.
