The South Sudan government has forced the Kenyan government to work with a firm associated with former Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.
According to Business Daily, the South Sudanese government wants President William Ruto’s administration to back the firm in handling cargo destined to South Sudan via the Standard Gauge Railway.
South Sudan entered a deal with Autoport Freight Terminals Limited to handle all imports at its Nairobi Freight Terminal (NFT).
This deal follows Ruto’s order to return ports operations to the Port of Mombasa.
South Sudan has since informed Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Kenya Railways that Autoport Freight Terminals Limited will continue handling their imports.
Elsewhere, an audit report by the Auditor General showed that the logistics company was awarded a contract on concessionary terms to operate at the taxpayer-funded inland cargo terminal in 2018.
It emerged that the firm won the contract on forgeries of board resolutions by the then-acting Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) managing director.
The logistics company was seeking concessionary lease terms after being allowed to set up at the Nairobi Freight Terminal (NFT).
It also wanted to introduce waivers of stand premium and annual rent premium for 10 years, meaning that they would pay a discounted freight tariff of $450 per wagon of 60 tons for the period.
However, the KRC board voted to reject the waiver appeals, saying that they were only available to firms setting up their own greenfield facilities.
Despite the board voting down the waiver appeals, the the. acting KRC MD wrote to the Transport CS saying the board had approved the appeals.