Murkomen announces measures that seek to boost airport services

Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and KAA MD Henry Ogoye addressing the media at KAA JKIA Head office in Nairobi on November 7, 2023. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Roads and Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen has announced a raft of measures geared towards improving service delivery and customer experience at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

At the centre of these reforms is a service charter that will bring together all agencies operating at the airport under a one-stop shop to provide seamless service to passengers.

The charter, to be signed at the end of the month, will bring together immigration, customs, police, port health, the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service and other service providers under the leadership of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA)

Speaking during a multiagency meeting at the KAA offices at the JKIA, Murkomen said they will also deploy technology to improve screening at the entrance of the airport Passenger Screening Yard (PSY) to end the current practice of passengers alighting at the main gate.

"Other changes to be undertaken include deploying technology to facilitate faster self-check-in and enhancing airport entry and exit by ensuring the the company providing parking services increases service booths and deploys faster technology" said Murkomen.

The CS said they will also deploy technology the the Advance Passenger Information (APS) system to provide prior information of passengers for more efficiency and enhanced security.

Meanwhile, it has been established the Kenya Revenue Authority does not have a system to determine the value of items subject to tax at entry points in airports.

During a media tour at the JKIA's Custom Declaration section on Tuesday, it emerged that it is through interrogations of passengers that the taxman discerns the worth of goods on transit. In one instance, a customer who travelled with unknown value of spectacles that the system detected should be subjected to taxation, was left to exit without neither paying tax nor her items formally valued. A KRA officer cleared her without imposing tax on the spectacles after she claimed her items were donations upon verbal interrogation, saying her items were worth Sh15,000.

However, KRA's Commissioner Customs and Border Control Lilian Nyawanda said they have well trained customs officers on valuation items.

"Once an item has been identified, we give them (travellers) an opportunity to give information and receipts and those that are not available we have a database for commonly imported items," she said.

She added: "Our scanner can differentiate between an old and a new phone. They mark luggage that the scanner detects as having goods subject to duty."

Recently, there has been public outrage over claims of harassment of passengers arriving at JKIA by KRA officials. This criticism came after KRA commenced implementing a directive to check expensive items they termed as "undeclared."

Tourism CS Alfred Mutua, who also toured the facility, promised a collaborative approach. "I want to say that you will not hear of any harassment. We are just following new procedures. If you are coming with one or two phones that's okay," Mutua said.