The National Assembly Committee on Trade, Industry & Cooperatives has proposed that 60 per cent of jobs in the transport and logistics industry, including those offered by multinationals, be reserved for local enterprises.
Speaking during a meeting with the Committee on Wednesday, the Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) chairperson, Newton Wang’oo expressed concern that multinational companies operating within the sector have been outsourcing logistics and warehousing services abroad, hindering the growth and competitiveness of local companies and denying Kenyans jobs.
The Chairperson expressed concern over what he described as unfair business practices by the foreign companies, which he cited need to be addressed promptly.
“Hon Gakuya (Committee Chairperson James Gakuya — Embakasi North) acknowledged the validity of KTA's concerns, emphasizing the necessity to safeguard local enterprises from unfair practices." Parliament said in a statement.
Introducing the policy aims to tackle this issue and promote local investors.
The Committee also proposed to hold a consultative meeting with the relevant stakeholders to address the issue further.
Besides the proposed measures, legislators also noted that there was the need to have an open market that did not lock out other industry players.
"There is every need to protect Kenyan business people in the logistics sector. However, we can't lock out multinationals from the sector," Gakuya stated during the proceedings.
It also emerged in the meeting that the multinationals prefer international logistic companies as they consider them reliable and trustworthy.
This prompted the legislators to urge the transporters to maintain high standards of integrity and professionalism to allow them to remain competitive.
This comes even as Kenyan firms continue to report a hostile operating environment, which has forced some firms out of business.
