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Kenya: Drivers On Trip to Sudan Missing
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The Nation (Nairobi)
21 March 2008
Posted to the web 20 March 2008
Gitonga Marete And Eunice Machuhi
Nairobi
A number of Kenyan truck drivers are missing in Southern Sudan, their union said Thursday.
The secretary of the Heavy Commercial Workers Union, Mr John Muite said that the drivers abandoned their vehicles because of insecurity.
"We are now appealing to the Government to intervene and help us trace our missing colleagues," he said.
Mr Muite said that in the recent past Kenyan drivers transporting goods to Southern Sudan had been mistreated due to the prevailing insecurity situation in that country.
The union also wants the Traffic Act changed to provide for the prosecution of truck owners for overloading and defective vehicles.
Mr Muite said it was wrong to charge drivers whereas they were not the ones responsible.
At the same time, a regulation introduced by the Kenya Revenue Authority requiring transporters to pay new licensing fees has been suspended.
The High Court in Nairobi has nullified the revenue collector's move to increase licensing fees to Sh29,600 from Sh10,000.
Lady Justice Jean Gacheche also issued an order barring the tax collector from enforcing the licensing requirements against the Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) in isolation from the other transporters in the East African Community.
Licensing agreements
In addition, the court ordered KRA to issue the transporters with licences under the old licensing agreements.
KTA chairman Shamshudin Khosla, secretary Abdulgafur Pasta and treasurer Mohammed Bayusuf want the court to stop KRA from enforcing the new fee, saying it amounted to Sh888 million for 30,000 lorries.
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The new charges apply to all transporters in the East African Community but currently, it is only Kenya that has applied them.
Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda have deferred the new charges and conditions, saying they were impractical unless they were harmonised with the Comesa regulations which bind the member states.
The inter party hearing will be on April 28, 2008 in Nairobi.
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