By Mwangi Muiruri

In 2002, Anti Corruption Unit Police paid a courtesy call to the then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Roads and Public Works Peter Wakori.

When they emerged from a private discussion, Eng Wakori told the press the Cabinet was in the process of approving the privatisation of the weighbridges.

Seven years down the line, the song of privatisation is still on, with all tell tale signs that it will continue longer.

However, city lawyer C G Kahuthu says the problem in the privatisation saga is lack of a law that will give the private sector powers to run weighbridges.

"The law does not provide for the private sector to stop vehicles at weighbridges and prosecute any defaulter of the rules they might put in place," he says.

He also says corruption at the weighbridges involves civil servants deployed at the spots, who are in cahoots with police officers charged with inspection of the vehicles.

"This means that, even if we privatise the weighing stations and retain police officers that are legally mandated to make arrests, corruption will remain," he argues.

Mr Richard Juma, a transporter says high corruption in weighbridge operations will make privatisation a pipe dream.

Excess capacity

"Transporters pay hefty bribes to have excessive load capacity pass. This money benefits the simple officers on the ground and big cats in high offices," he claims.

Kahuthu says there are no laid down procedures and processes in the operations of weighbridges, hence providing for corruption loopholes. "In other instances, some transporters appear at the weighbridges with passage notes from senior Government officers. Even policy makers have consignments to ferry and they cannot be stopped at the stations. That fuels corruption on junior officers on the ground," he adds.

A confidential source at the Roads Ministry supports the claim.

"We always receive numerous reports of the involvement of brokers in weighbridge operations, wherein the agents go ahead of the cargo transporter and pay bribes to the weighing stations," the source says. The source says the ministry has Kenya Anti Corruption Commission’s recommendations on how to tame graft, but no one is interested in implementing them.

Implementation

"We have reports on assessment of policy guidelines, procedures, processes and practices in the creation, maintenance, retrieval and disposal of records pertaining to the tracking of the weighed vehicles but the cash to be lost once implemented is hindering implementation," the source claims.

Yet, threats to sack corrupt officials have on numerous occasions arisen.

Last year, the late Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones ordered the transfer of officers manning a weighbridge in Western Kenya after they were caught falsifying tonnage documents of overloaded trailers. A furious Kones also ordered police to charge the drivers of the trailers in court for the same offence.

The minister who was on a tour of road projects in Rift Valley and Nyanza provinces regretted that efforts by the Government to maintain passable roads were being frustrated by some corrupt weighbridge officials who permitted overloaded trucks to operate on the roads.

And he also sang the old song of privatisation thus: "All weighbridges in the country would be privatised."

He railed at the weighbridge officials’ "appetite for operating faulty weighing machines in order to cover their corruption practices."

His predecessor John Michuki had also visited several weighbridges and apart from warning officers not to be reporting to work while drunk, he said the ministry would do spot checks in a bid to nab officers who allow overloaded trucks on the roads.

Axle-load guidelines

As the confusion reigns at the weighbridges, the Government is facing problems implementing axle-load guidelines. Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere recently gazetted the directive of three-axle load as the maximum on Kenyan roads hence reducing tonnage to 28.

He said the move was to protect roads from rapid tear and wear, hence eating into the exchequer through repairs.

In the move, Mwakwere said the best option for transporters was to buy less than 400 horsepower trucks since the maximum load they can cope with is 28 tonnes.

But David Okeya, a civil engineer says the reduction of axle load does not necessarily reduce tear and wear.

He says the trick is to expand rail network and make sure the taxation regimes in the rail sector can lure transporters to abandon trucks.