A pillage of TRUCKS covering more than 15 kilometers inside Kenya the Malaba border has created congestion.
On Tuesday Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) suspended all companies from bonding any cargo.
URA says all the companies will not be allowed to undertake cargo clearance until they renew their licenses and insurance covers.
URA Manager Public Relations and Corporate Affairs, Paul Kyeyune promised to respond after being briefed on the crisis at the Malaba branch of the Authority, which had seen over 1,000 trucks waiting to be cleared.
Kenyan authorities were left with no alternative but to wait for Ugandan authorities to intervene and restore normalcy lest traders will start counting millions of loses resulting from delayed cargo clearance.
Teso Police boss, Elphas Korir said the situation had sparked off a long queue of trucks, adding that he had informed the relevant authorities regarding the crisis, which he said was totally out of their control.
Truck drivers also attributed the pile up to the move by Uganda to increase daily parking fees from Ush5, 000 to 10,000 which had forced most drivers to remain on the Kenyan side which charges only Ksh300 ( sh 7,000) per truck irrespective of the time it will take for the truck to stay at the parking yard.
Analysts fear that the perpetual jam at the Kenya-Uganda border was threatening regional economies and appealed for quicker intervention by Kenya and Ugandan leaders to restore the confidence of importers and exporters.
Kenyan clearing agents have also levied partial blame on Kenya Revenue Authority, whom they claimed had moved the rotation exercise to the customs gate on the Kenyan side inside of Ugandan side, thus delaying the clearance exercise owing to shortage of KRA officers.
Customs officials in Malaba, Kenya blame constant pile up of trucks on the rapid economic growth in the region yet infrastructure remained the same.
The officials also railed at truck drivers whom they claimed preferred to park their vehicles as early as 7:00pm and retire to bed in lodgings until the following day, thus rendering the 24-hour exercise irrelevant as KRA officers remain doing nothing.
Following the latest development, KRA Custom's officials held a crisis meeting with clearing agents and transporters at the Malaba Railway Club yesterday in a bid to find a lasting solution to the current stalemate.
