Kenya Car importers on Tuesday, April 11, stated that they were incurring losses in millions after more than 6,000 motor vehicles were abandoned at the Container Freight Station (CFS) in Mombasa.
According to the chairman of Kenya Car Importers Association Peter Otieno, they were forced to hold the vehicles at the containers because Kenyans were no longer buying vehicles as much as they did previously.
Otieno noted that those who were buying vehicles preferred the recently registered vehicles.
"We are now losing customers. If a vehicle takes more than three months, it devalues and we resell those vehicles at losses.
“They are not buying vehicles irrespective of how good that vehicle is. They prefer taking the most recently registered vehicle and the ones imported and registered earlier are left behind,” Otieno stated.
Further, importers' representative lamented that the low uptake of cars was because of the high cost of living.
The association pleaded with the government to allow them to release the vehicles to the market without registration promising to share the data of all unregistered vehicles.
The move according to Otieno, would allow them to sell more vehicles and generate more revenue for the government at the same time.
“We will share the data of all unregistered vehicles with the government as well as a monthly update on the registered vehicles,” he stated.
Another dealer explained that it had become difficult for them to even import vehicles because of the depreciation in the value of the Kenyan shilling against the dollar.
"When they give me money in Kenyan shillings to import a vehicle from Japan, I find it very difficult because the value of that vehicle is now lower than in Japan.
"The amount of money I use to sell a vehicle in Kenyan shillings if I exchange that into dollars, it becomes impossible for me to buy another one to sell," he stated.
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