By Adia Jildo
The Chairperson of the standing specialized committee of Finance and Economic Planning at the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, Changkuoth Bichiock Reth said they adjourned a meeting aimed at intervening on the issue of standoff between transporters and Kenyan and South Sudan transport authorities over relocation of South Sudan cargos from Mombasa port to Nairobi Freight.
The change of the cargo route which importers and transporters of South Sudan protested of led to skyrocketing commodities price in the market as cargos are delayed creating commodities scarcity in the market.
The standoff situation prompted the Assembly Business Committee (ABC) for finance to summon the concerned authorities to ask some critical questions on the matter in pursuit of resolving the matter.
The parliamentary committee for Finance and Economic Planning urged the minister of Transport, Minister of East African Community Affairs, Auditor General and other relevant authorities. However failure of most of the key aforementioned officials forced the ABC meeting to be adjourned.
“We could not continue with the discussion because the Minister of Transport and Commissioner General of Customs should be there to answer some questions which are meant to be directed to them,” he said.
“We have summoned the Minister of Trade, Minister of Transport, Minister of EAC Affair, Commissioners of National Revenue Authority, and the Auditor General of South Sudan for simple reason of complains from the business communities in South Sudan,” he added.
Bichiock said the business communities were not consulted on the transfer of the freight terminal which has greatly affected their work and has led to price increase in commodities as cited by a letter addressed.
“We received a document, we went through it and we found out that the complains were about the cargos that are coming to South Sudan because there are different charges that are happening in Nairobi where the prices are now high for clearance,” he stated.
The meeting is adjourned to Tuesday 26th July 2022 for the Minister of Transport, Minister of East African Community Affairs to answer queries in regards to the transfer of freight terminal for goods entering South Sudan and the increase in commodity price.