Is Kilindini Waterfront Automated Terminal Operation System (Kwatos) failing? This is the million dollar question bothering importers and exporters as they incur losses due to delays occasioned by the system.
Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA) chairman, Mombasa branch, Peter Otieno said that it was taking up to two weeks to clear a container from the port. The situation could be worse for those importers who are incurring demurrages.
Before the introduction of Kwatos it took a clearing agent up to a week to clear a single container from the port of Mombasa, said Mr Otieno in an interview with Shipping News.
“We are now incurring an overhead cost of Sh21,000 to clear a single container from the port of Mombasa since the introduction of the system,” said Mr Otieno, arguing that the manual system should run together with Kwatos until the cause of the hitches was identified and rectified.
