Inside house fraud of imported containers at the Port of Mombasa has land the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) is on the spot .
The importers who rely on KPA to handle their cargo from the shipping line before they clear and collect them have been shocked at times to find the cargo, which are sometimes stored in the bulky 40-foot containers, missing under unclear circumstances.
With some container losses remaining unresolved for over 10 years ago, KPA has been battling court cases with some set to demand billions in compensation in lengthy and costly legal battles.
The State agency, which admits to having suffered cyber-attacks in the fraud that has seen some containers disappear, could not however disclose the latest figures on how many containers have been lost.
Mr Abdullatif Ibrahim spoke to Sunday Nation over his experience of losing three 20-feet containers containing fabrics from China between August 2005 and November 2008.
The businessman had received all clearances including the release orders and KPA invoices and had trucks ready to pick his cargo when he received a lifetime blow to his business.
“When we went for customs verification, the containers could not be found. We looked all over the port but the containers had disappeared without trace,” Mr Ibrahim said, recalling the start of his wild goose chase that is still on to date.
The importer wrote several letters to KPA to follow up on the container loss. He got two responses; one of the responses accepted that indeed the containers disappeared and another in November 2008 simply saying the request was rejected.
The claims, which according to documents he filed has hit Sh36 million, were “awkwardly exaggerated” according to KPA and no other offer was given in return.
The businessman then had more salt rubbed on his wound when KRA slapped him with a Sh1.9 million duty demand for the cargo he was yet to see. For KRA, the goods were taxable having arrived in the country and for failure to pay the duty, the business was suspended.
The drama around his container losses saw some eight people, including KPA officials, arrested and charged with the theft of containers.
KPA, which interdicted its staff involved in the fraud, however turned a deaf ear on the businessman’s pleas whose final attempt to get Original Delivery Orders to try and lodge an alternative claim through the shipping line hit a snag.
“KPA wants us to commence a court action 13 years later on a straight forward case of containers disappearing from the port under their custody. The case may take another 10 years to be concluded when most of us will be dead. We also cannot afford to raise court fees to lodge the claim of Sh36 million,” Mr Ibrahim said in despair.
The agency did not comment on this case and declined to give an annual figure on how many containers are reported lost at the port of Mombasa, only restricting their reply to 2016 from when it says the losses had been ‘zero-rated.’
KPA head of corporate affairs Bernard Osero said there have been a number of theft attempts since 2016, but only three instances saw containers leave the port before they were recovered and the suspects arraigned in court.
In May 2016, some 124 containers found their way out of the port in an irregular release that caused a Sh106 million loss in tax revenues.
Will corruption ever end in Kenya?