A controversy is brewing between the heavy commercial vehicle transporters and the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) over the fines being charged against lifting axles for offences committed as far back as 2018.
Last week, Mercy Ireri, Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) Chief Operations Officer wrote to Engineer Peter Mundinia, KeNHA Director General complaining that the agency has been fining the transporters for the offence since early this year.
“Transporters have been charged to the tunes of millions posing a threat to the survival of their businesses. The delayed charges were in most cases committed by drivers who have moved on to other companies or even passed on,” KTA letter reads in part, adding that instead, the traffic offences committed should be charged against offending drivers and not the transporters.
The law requires that all vehicles weighing above 3.5 tonnes have to pass through weighbridges along the highways. Trucks pay up to Sh400,000 for a single offence of overloading which has exceeded 10 tonnes, meaning a repeat offender could have pending fees running into millions.
According to KeNHA those buying used trucks may find themselves facing hefty fines from the authority for overloading offences committed by the trucks long before they acquired them.
KeNHA, runs virtual weigh stations on major highways that capture vehicle number plates and images of the overloaded trucks and send them to the agency’s control center where they are kept for up to seven years. A buyer of a used truck can be caught unawares when the trucks are impounded and charged for past overloading offences.
There are 13 unmanned weigh stations across the country that allow overloaded trucks to pass but record their details, which are then used by KeNHA’s mobile patrol units to trace the trucks. If they are not nabbed, the trucks are impounded when they pass through any of the 11 static weighbridges in the country.
Some trucks that have largely used only routes where there are virtual weigh stations make multiple offences before finally being flagged down by KeNHA after they have accumulated fines running into hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of shillings.
KeNHA assistant director for axle load control Michael Ngala told local press that the records are stored in the systems for up to seven years, meaning that the offending trucks may have changed hands when they are finally caught.
“It should be part of your due diligence when buying a truck that has been used locally because when we finally catch it, we will not relate the age of the offence and the ownership. Our culprit is the truck and when we impound it all the pending fees will have to be paid before it is released,” Mr Ngala explained.
He said some trucks are caught years after ownership has changed, like one that was found with Sh2 million in pending fines last year, months after the owner had sold it to a different person.
KTA letter demanded that KeNHA give written justification for any charges that are brought against the transporters over two years later. They also want any offence tagged from November 1st at the digital toll stations be communicated to the offending vehicle owner immediately or at the next available toll stations and in any way not more than 30 days after the offence has been committed.
Transporters should also be given 90 days within which to make payments and all the vehicles tagged between 2018 and October 31st be quashed, according to KTA, which has proposed to use a certified mediator to resolve the dispute at a venue and time agreeable between the two agencies.
Kenya allows trucks to carry a maximum of eight tonnes on each axle, with the maximum tonnage capped at 56 to reduce road damage, whose expenses have been rising in recent years.
The highways authority receives the lion’s share of the Sh69 billion road maintenance levy contributed by motorists while buying fuel.
The agency has a network spanning over 18,000 kilometres.
