Prices of second-hand vehicle imports are set to increase come July 2019 following a move to reduce the age limit from eight to five years.
The move comes as a big blow to potential car buyers who will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets to afford the engine.
In the past few years, the number of people owning second-hand cars has increased greatly due to the ease in affordability and terms of ownership as the prices were lower.
The directive to drop the age limit on second-hand cars has been made by Trade Secretary Peter Munya who has asked the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) to immediately draft legal amendments on the same while raising allowable exhaust emission standards for all vehicle imports.
Implementation of the order will immediately raise the price of almost all second-hand vehicle imports to above 1 million shillings, with the cost increase ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of shillings depending on the model.
The new regulations, if implemented will pave the way for gazettement and official enforcement of the changes after Treasury secretary Henry Rotich’s Budget presentation in June.
A vehicle manufactured in 2012 is the oldest that can be imported into the country this year based on the current eight-year age limit but the change to five years means the year of manufacture will be from 2015.
Newer vehicles cost more to buy from overseas markets such as Japan, with the units also attracting higher taxes since the customs value forms the basis for a series of cumulative levies.