Union Calls for Ban on Imports of Used Cars

By Godfrey Tung'wet Posted 29 June 2006 @ 12:35 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

NAIROBI (IBTimes.com) - Trade unionists yesterday said importation of used vehicles had dealt a death blow to local assemblers, and backed stringent measures against importers. Associated Vehicle Assemblers has said it would declare 140 employees redundant, Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metalworkers noted yesterday.

They welcomed Kenya Revenue Authority's (KRA's) new verification rules for imported used cars, but said the Government should play its part by buying locally assembled Toyota models, instead of importing them from South Africa as is currently the case. In the past, the Government took deliveries from Associated Vehicle Assemblers (AVA) in Mombasa.

"The first batch of the affected workers have already received redundancy letters," the union's deputy general secretary Justus Otakwa said yesterday. AVA managers were not available for comment.

AVA assembles Toyota and Peugeot models. Controlled by the Marshalls Group. It had been assembling the famous Peugeot 504 make which went out of production in 2002. Yesterday, the unionists asked Finance minister Amos Kimunya to completely ban importation of used vehicles. "The same trend has already occurred at General Motors and Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers (KVM)," claimed the statement.

KRA has come into sharp focus after telling importers to have car log books verified by the Japanese embassy, after a crackdown on vehicles suspected by Interpol to have been stolen and exported to Kenya.