For 16 long years, they waited through court adjournments, appeals, and financial ruin. 16 years since the 2007/08 post-election violence in Kenya that reduced their livelihoods to ashes, Ugandan transporters have finally won a crucial victory.
At the close of last month, the Court of Appeal in Nairobi upheld a High Court decision requiring the Kenyan government to compensate 16 Ugandan logistics and transport firms whose trucks and goods were destroyed in the chaos that followed Kenya’s disputed presidential election.
Though court revised the payout, originally set at Shs231.4b ($64.3m), it affirmed the principle that the State failed to protect the truckers and their property from foreseeable harm.
The traders, among them Intraspeed Logistics, Dooba Enterprises, Wilbex Uganda, Sebco Uganda, and Mugega Holdings, filed suit in 2009, accusing Kenya’s Attorney General and Inspector General of Police of negligence for failing to safeguard cross-border freight trucks during the violence.
For many, the events of early 2008 remain etched in painful memory. Trucks carrying goods from Mombasa to Kampala, Kigali, and Goma were torched, looted, or abandoned along roads rendered impassable by riots and barricades.
Over 20 trucks were lost, along with millions worth of merchandise.
‘The losses crippled businesses overnight,’ recalls John Bosco Rusagara, the chief executive officer of Intraspeed Logistics, who testified on behalf of 15 affected firms. His company lost six trucks, loaded with fuel and tyres, and was pushed into receivership.
‘We had loans to service, staff to pay, and customers to answer to. Everything collapsed in weeks,’ he said.
For Faustin Mbundu, the managing director of Katraco, the destruction meant the end of an enterprise he had spent years building.
‘We lost three trucks and all our operating assets,’ he testified. Tom Mugenga, owner of Mugega Holdings, said his company lost eight trucks and later saw his Mombasa property auctioned to repay bank debts.
Court awarded Mugega Holdings Shs530m for the seized property and Shs57.5b in special damages.
The traders’ legal battle stretched across 16 years, marked by appeals, delays, and financial exhaustion.
The Kenyan government, through the Attorney General, argued that the violence was spontaneous and unforeseeable, an ‘act of nature’ that the police could not have reasonably prevented.
But the courts disagreed, with both the High Court and the Court of Appeal holding that the State had a duty of care to protect life and property, particularly along vital trade routes linking Kenya to its landlocked neighbours.
In their ruling, appellate judges found no fault in the High Court’s decision but revised the loss-of-business compensation period from six to three years.
‘We find no basis to interfere with the judgment, except to assign 15 percent loss of business per truck per annum for three years in place of six,’ the judges ruled.
Even with the adjusted figure, the verdict represents a landmark affirmation of accountability and a long-awaited moment of closure for the traders who refused to give up.
The case carried regional significance beyond individual losses. During the post-election violence, supply chains linking the Port of Mombasa to Uganda, Rwanda, and DR Congo were severely disrupted.
Uganda, which depends heavily on Kenya’s transport corridors, suffered widespread economic setbacks.
For many of the affected firms, the destruction of their fleets led to bank defaults, job losses, and years of debt recovery. Some never recovered. Others, like Intraspeed and Dooba, spent years rebuilding from scratch.
While the Court of Appeal’s decision does not erase the financial scars, it restores a sense of justice long denied.
For the surviving companies and the families behind them, it validates their resilience and belief that governments must be held responsible for the protection of cross-border investments.
16 years after their trucks burned on Kenyan soil, the transporters can finally look forward to compensation, however partial, however late.
It is a bittersweet triumph: a reminder that while justice may crawl, it can still reach those who wait, even through a generation of uncertainty, debt, and endurance.