KIFWA, the union for cargo agents and forwarders is on record as saying that they would rather die than use sgr.... even if it was free. That they would rather make sure the customer pays the usual 80k to move a container by road from mbs to nrb than use a free sgr. So this sgr cargo is just about vested interests and not economics. The agents in mbs and cfs want to keep their jobs and business and that's why they are trying to frustrate the sgr. The gov't should deal with this issue the way it dealt with the oil transport issue. The gov't built a pipeline and ordered that all oil be transported via the pipeline. The oil clearing agents had to move from mbs to nairobi, nakuru, eld, kisumu. The same should happen to all other cargo. Kenyans are tired of paying for destruction caused to the road by all those trucks on mbs road. Not to mention the terrible traffic jams and accidents caused by cargo trucks.

Remind me what day it is

My take if i was Ouru:

Fire people at the ministry of Transport and hire competent experts to specifically run with the SGR.
Lots of incompetence kwa mfano

Kenya Railways Board, Bandari KPA port

i will hire competent board of directors made up established industry mandarins wenye wana geneuine interest of this country no tenderpreneurs at the mercy of the minister.

Have in place interministerial task force reporting to me in person

Ni hayo tu.

Are there containers leaving Nairobi to Mombasa by road... ?

Does gov't engage matatus before upgrading a road? What they do is that they study the road traffic system and come up with the solution to upgrade or expand the road.
They did the same for SGR after noting the transport chaos between mbs and nrb where passengers and cargo would sometimes be stuck for days in endless traffic jams not to mention numerous accidents and billions spent on road maintenance. The lunatic express line was no better with its endless delays and derailments.

Also I thought that for many yrs importers were complaining about the archaic lunatic express that was taking 4 days to move a container from mbs to nrb and saying that the solution was to have a modern SGR like in developed countries?

Cargo volumes on the SGR have been on a steady increase in the last few months.. last data reported was for week ending 18th April with 2917 TEUs transported via train.

31-Jan 438
07-Feb 671
21-Feb 1145
28-Feb 1168
07-Mar 1813
21-Mar 1943
29-Mar 2008
18-Apr 2917

This is data from KPA site SGR latest data.. Cargo evacuated via trucks has reduced as more importers turn to SGR..

The implications:
1. With shipping lines signing agreements with KPA/KR to have Nairobi as final destination on Bill of Lading, Importers who choose this option only have to think of last mile. I stand to be corrected, but i believe the cost of the SGR aspect will be included as part of shipping costs, and hence less headache for the importer. Hence importer pays shipping line or their agent and gets goods in ICD. Mombasa becomes transparent to importer, same way they really dont know if the goods were transhipped in Dubai or Singapore.

2. For those in trucking, ferrying containers from Mombasa to Nairobi is currently not a viable business, once all the inefficiencies on SGR are addressed. The writing is on the wall.. Adapt to last mile from ICD or Mombasa. I don't see why a Nairobi based importer would choose to transport goods via road once all the inefficiencies have been dealt with and the current SGR rates persist.

However, the SGR rates currently are designed to be very low to attract people to the SGR. Am sure once SGR get enough cargo, the importers and C&F agents will have systemized the SGR, and am 100% sure SGR rates will go back to the initial proposed rates of 50-60K per 40 foot container. Add last mile part, the cost will almost be same as that of a truck from MSA to NRB. This is the long term part, where the rail and truckers can co-exist, with the rail taking most of the traffic.

3. Expect most of the Mombasa C&F agents who deal with containers to shift their offices to Nairobi, and leave skeletal staff in Mombasa.

4. For most truckers, a shift towards transit cargo may be the way to go. This may bring down prices for transit cargo, e.g. Kampala rates may go down to 200K from 230-240K currently charged from MSA.

@essyk - how do you see things from the user point of view?