NORTHERN CORRIDOR TASKFORCE TOUR OF THE MOMBASA-MALABA SECTION

The Northern Corridor being a transport system linking Great lakes countries of Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya to the seaport of Mombasa has infrastructure facilities that include road networks, Railway network, pipelines and inland water ways that are key pillars of the region’s development.

In a bid to facilitate transit transport and trade along the NC, the NCTTCA Secretariat indentified several transit nodes whose performance directly affects the cost of doing business along the corridor. The Malaba Customs Border Point being one of the major nodes presented a serious bottleneck of persistent hold up of trucks carrying cargo in transit forming a queue of about 4km on Kenyan side, hence the NCTTCA secretariat’s idea of organizing a taskforce tour.

A tour along the Mombasa -Malaba section of the corridor was undertaken by a taskforce comprising of key stakeholders. The taskforce which was led by the NCTTCA, comprised of members from the Private sector (transporters & Clearing Agencies), Public sector (KRA, KPA, KMA, URA & Kenya Police) and NC secretariat whose mission was;

• To identify the causes of long queues of cargo trucks at Malaba Border
• To examine the security checks and police cargo identification procedures
• To examine the weighbridge operations and procedures along the corridor
• To examine the Joint Cargo Verification processes under the One Stop Border Post regime
• To Identify any other parties involved in the movement of traffic along the Corridor, their levels of involvement and impact on transit times.

The tour started from the Sea Port of Mombasa and ended at the Malaba, Uganda-Kenya Border. While on the trip the taskforce examined processes at the main transit nodes, infrastructure and facilities used in clearance and handling of cargo, and interviewed various stakeholders (i.e. regulators & users) involved in handling traffic along the corridor.

A consultative meeting with all stakeholders (both private and public) operating at the Malaba border was held. It is in this meeting that recommendations for every observed hurdle/bottlenecks faced by traders along the Northern Corridor was deliberated

For details of the findings and recommendations made, refer to the “NC Report for the Mombasa-Malaba Section Tour”