EIA, which handled 810 tonnes of cargo last June, has seen its tonnage plunge and only managed 233 tonnes in February, 2010, an airport spokesman confirmed.
Despite the huge drop in cargo throughput and the loss of its airline customers, the airport spokesman, Peter Wafula, says that although the number of airlines may have reduced, he is still optimistic about the growth of EIA’s cargo operations as those remaining had increased capacity, but did not elaborate.
However, a Dubai forwarder, who declined to be named, confirmed local news reports which claimed that strict airport importation rules had forced many businessmen to switch to other airports like Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in eastern Kenya instead of EIA in the past one or two years.
“Businesses do not want trouble, so they just avoided Eldoret for other airports that gave them less problems with their cargo inspections and stringent documentations,†he added.
He pointed out that as business dwindled due to the tightened rules at Eldoret, Cargolux stopped serving the airport in 2007 and a year later, Qatar Air Cargo also stopped its service to EIA due to insufficient cargo business to support its service.
Currently, only Emirates Sky Cargo flies from Dubai to EIA weekly. The other airline serving Eldoret is Egypt Air which flies from Sharjah to EIA twice weekly before continuing onward to JKIA in eastern Kenya. A third airline, Jetlink Express offers domestic services from Eldoret airport to other destinations in Africa.
Tightening the rules
According to a Sunday Nation report, the commissioner for investigations and enforcement at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Joseph Nduati, was quoted as saying that the stringent rules were introduced at EIA after the government realised the airport was not only losing up to KES100 million (US$1.3 million) every week, but it was being used for smuggling and for allowing prohibited goods into the country which posed a national security risk.
Since then, the government insisted that importers give their identity, nature of cargo and its value before being allowed into the country, so that the importers could be traced if the cargo imported contravened any of the country’s laws. “We want them (importers using Eldoret airport) to operate as in other ports,†Nduati says. “There are instances when importers had gone missing after drugs or prohibited goods had been impounded,†he added.
Last July KRA reported that it was losing an estimated KES100 million every week through tax evasion in a syndicate that involved customs officials, importers and businessmen. The loss allegedly involved a long web that had local and international links in the goods that were mainly collected from Eastleigh after being imported through EIA.
The report said the syndicate had connections to countries where most of their goods are sourced, including China, Turkey, India and Dubai among others. The typical goods smuggled into the country include electronics, clothing, as well as furniture.
Unlike other ports where importers are charged according to the value of goods imported, at Eldoret airport, traders were charged in accordance with the weight of their cargo and ranged from KES280 to KES350 per kilo.
An importer who was using EIA said he had reverted to using the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after realising that there were no benefits in using Eldoret. The importer said the charges at Eldoret were the same as Nairobi and, since his shops were in Eastleigh, it was cheaper.
Kenya Aerotech, the ground handler which specialises in aircraft handling services, ramp, cargo handling and other services at EIA, has been hit due to the continued downward trend of the aircargo business at Eldoret.