The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) on Thursday, May 18 warned Kenyans seeking to import vehicles into the country and other machinery on sale at the Port of Lamu.
In a statement, KPA disclosed that there was a surge in the number of fraudsters posing as genuine car importers.
According to the authority, the fraudsters pretend to import the vehicles through the Port of Lamu, which does not handle any motor vehicles or machinery.
"The Kenya Ports Authority wishes to caution the public against dealing with such con artists. We also wish to notify the public that currently the Port of Lamu does not handle any motor vehicles or machinery," KPA added.
KPA added that the scammers use Facebook, Twitter, Emails, and WhatsApp among other social platforms to con unsuspecting members of the public.
"We urge members of the public to report such people entities who are out to swindle unsuspecting motor vehicles buyers to the nearest police station," KPA added.
According to KPA, the port was constructed to provide cost-effective, world-class infrastructure and services as part of the national vision 2030.
On April 18, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen hinted at abolishing the 8-year limit on imported cars to help streamline the transport sector.
Murkomen stated that the limit may be reduced from eight to zero to guarantee that the country avoids the dumping of second-hand vehicles.
"Progressively as you deal with the dumping issues, you deal with the years of imported vehicles," the CS added.
According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in 2022, Kenyans imported more pick-ups compared to saloon cars.
In the report, Kenyans imported 10,901 units of vans and pickups, with only 6,350 saloon cars being imported.
However, the expenditure on imported motor vehicles declined by 14.6 per cent from Ksh99.5 billion in 2021 to Ksh85 billion in 2022.
"The average import price of road motor vehicles declined by 37.4 per cent from Ksh957,671.90 per unit in 2021 to Ksh599,156.50 per unit in 2022," read part of the report.
