• KRA and KPA announced measures to decongest Mombasa Port, cut dwell times, and speed clearances.
• Long-stay cargo will be evacuated; Pre-Arrival Processing expanded; RECTS upgraded with multi-vendor seals.
• The reforms target faster clearance, higher revenue, and competitiveness, backed by KPA’s 40M tons, 2M TEUs, and strong efficiency benchmarks.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), in collaboration with the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and industry stakeholders, announced last week a set of technology-driven reforms to ease congestion at the Port of Mombasa, reduce cargo dwell times, and speed up clearances.

KRA Commissioner-General Humphrey Wattanga described the initiative as a "strategic shift toward a digitally enabled port ecosystem" aimed at eliminating bottlenecks and supporting economic growth. KPA Managing Director Capt. William Ruto emphasized shared responsibility, saying the reforms will "unlock capacity and strengthen Mombasa’s competitiveness."

Immediate measures include moving long-stay consignments exceeding 21 days to designated Container Freight Stations for auction or destruction, freeing up yard space to address congestion. KRA is also expanding the Pre-Arrival Processing framework, which allows cargo documentation to be submitted before ships dock, enabling faster clearance and improved predictability.

Upgrades are planned for the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (RECTS), jointly managed by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. To address seal shortages, KRA is introducing a multi-vendor supply model to strengthen monitoring along the Northern Corridor.

The reforms are expected to deliver wide-ranging benefits, including faster clearance times, higher revenue collection, and improved competitiveness against rival ports such as Dar es Salaam.

The Kenya Ports Authority currently manages about 40 million metric tons of cargo annually, including 2 million TEUs of container traffic, with an average waiting time of 0.6 days and a container ship turnaround of 2.9 days. These figures underline the importance of maintaining efficiency as cargo volumes continue to grow.

Hikmatu Bilali