Kenya may be on the verge of losing its position as the desired petroleum products importation route for East African nations as Rwanda and Burundi have stopped the importation of their fuel needs via the port of Mombasa and have chosen to direct their shipments through Tanzania, Kenya Transporters Association revealed on Tuesday.

This decision was as a result of the contamination of some cargoes.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Transporters Association, Alfayo Otuke, the East African countries changed routes at the beginning of this year after discovering that imports via Tanzania’s main port in Dar es Salaam were clean and it also allows heavier loads.

“Kenya’s position as the preferred petroleum importation route for landlocked East African nations is slipping out of our hands. It’s because importers feel our fuel is contaminated. We have unscrupulous traders. We have cases where some load transporters siphon fuel, add other products and when it gets to the destination countries, it is found to be adulterated,” Otuke told Bloomberg adding that the Kenyan port anticipates the volume of cargo to increase to 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units by 2020.

Mombasa which is an entry for imports to Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan, Eastern Congo and Northern Tanzania and also an exit point for agricultural commodities such as tea and coffee, is facing increased competition from Tanzania, where the government is currently enlarging the port at Dar es Salaam and intends to spend $10 billion building a new one at Bagamoyo, 52 km north.

The country is also planning a $7.6-billion railway connecting Dar es Salaam to Burundi, Rwanda, Congo and Uganda. The link could rival Kenya’s own new line targeting the same countries. Construction of the first phase of that line, which will connect the port to the capital Nairobi, will be complete in about eight months.

Otuke said that in order to maintain some of its Rwandan and Burundi business, Kenya plans to open a new and shorter road via its southern frontier town of Taveta, and through Tanzania, instead of the roundabout route through Uganda.

Anita Fatunji