A workers’ strike paralysed the clearance of cargo at the Mombasa port for the second day running yesterday, disrupting the supply of goods to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The effects of the strike called to protest new national health insurer's rates are likely to be felt in the rest of East Africa because no goods can be cleared for import or export.

On Wednesday, a Ugandan representative at the port said importers and exporters from his country would stop paying storage charges after two days because they were not responsible for the delays in clearing cargo.

Yesterday, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Managing Director Gichiri Ndua said the authority had lost over Ksh100 million (over $1 million) in handling fees in the 36 hours that unionisable employees had boycotted work. This estimate does not include the cost shipping companies incur to run their vessels.

Fifteen ships had berthed at the port waiting to be loaded or to unload their cargo while seven others were waiting to berth. With the daily cost of running one vessel ranging at between Ksh5 million ($50,182) and Ksh10 million ($100,366), depending on its size, the losses from the strike are massive. The Mombasa port also serves landlocked countries in the region.

“It’s rather unfortunate that the strike started with our workers and yet even members of the mother union had not started the boycott. As you can see, we decided to deploy our management staff to do the work and we hope to resume fully by tomorrow,” Mr Ndua said yesterday.

Port users were on Tuesday and yesterday told to stay away, with clerks and truck drivers saying they had spent the two days trying to have their trucks loaded to no avail.

Mr Hamisi Lalo, a driver, said he loaded his truck with rails he was to transport to the China Road and Bridge Construction camp site but was stopped at the gate.

“This is unfair because my boss is waiting for me and I am stuck here because of the strike. We have incurred huge losses because I was supposed to come back for another load,” he told journalists at the container terminal.

Although workers at the management level had been deployed at the terminal, there was little sign of activity in most of the berths and Mr Ndua said if the workers continue to stay away, the port’s management would hire replacement workers.

“We are telling our employees that KPA has not had an engagement with them in which we have differed and, therefore, there is no justification for them to withhold labour,” Mr Ndua said.

However, Dock Workers Union Secretary-General Simon Sang said workers were not consulted when the new National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) rates were introduced. The first deductions were reflected in the June salaries.

“Our strike is legal because it kicked off after the expiry of the seven-day notice. What we are stressing is that the rates cannot be based on the gross salary and they must stop the deductions with immediate effect,” he said.

READ MORE ON NATION