MOMBASA: Kenya's biggest trucking association called off an indefinite strike that threatened to paralyse Mombasa port, east Africa's main trade gateway.
KTA, a body whose 400 members operate around 50,000 trucks, said on Friday it ended the five-day strike - called to protest a law limiting vehicles' weight load per axle after the government suspended the law.
Around 95 percent of all the cargo coming in through the port is ferried to its final destination by road, with trucks the main mode of transport.
Twalib Khamis, who is in charge of operations at the port, said the strike had thrown management into a state of panic due to the potential congestion.
The east African nation is the world's largest exporter of black tea, and a strike at the port, where a weekly tea auction also features tea from neighbouring landlocked producers such as Burundi, could disrupt shipments.
The port also handles fuel imports for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Center>Copyright Reuters, 2012
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