• Kibicho and his team said they are looking for way to improve the pace at which cargo is evacuated.
• He said different agencies are doing their best to ensure there is coordination and that cargo leaves the port as fast as possible.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
The National Development Implementation and Technical Committee has expressed satisfaction with the current port operations in Mombasa.
The committee, under the chairmanship of Interior PS Karanja Kibicho, toured the Port of Mombasa on Thursday.
They visited key facilities including berths 14, 16 and 21, standard gauge railway marshalling yard and the Kipevu Oil Terminal to assess the status of operations in these key areas.
“We are satisfied…I can confidently say that we did not detect any congestion,” Kibicho said after a seven-hour meeting and tour of the port facility.
This comes after a section of port stakeholders accused government agencies of being responsible for the delays and congestion at the port. They include transporters, clearing and forwarding agents, manufacturers, ship agents and other private sector players.
On March 1, they met East Africa Community PS Kevit Desai to discuss ways of collaborating to improve the efficiency at the port.
“We need a collective approach to be able to resolve many of these issues that affect our ability to trade competitively in the region,” PS Desai had said.
On Thursday, Kibicho and his team said they are looking for way to improve the pace at which cargo is evacuated.
“For example, when we went to the SGR yard, you saw that there is a train there just parked waiting for the ships to be offloaded. It was ready to take cargo to Nairobi but it can’t go half-full,” Kibicho said.
One SGR train has a capacity of transporting 108 containers to Nairobi in single stack. There are 14 trains that make the trip daily.
“What we are looking at is can we create the 108 from the ships as quickly as possible? In terms of congestion, it is not anything that we are worried about,” the PS said.
He was accompanied by Maritime Affairs PS Nancy Karigithu, her Industrialisation counterpart Kirimi Kaberia and other top government officials.
Kibicho said different agencies charged with implementing government projects at the port are doing their best to ensure there is coordination and that cargo leaves the port as fast as possible.
“The overall objective is to bring down the cost of logistics so that eventually the cost of goods in this country goes down.
“When you do your calculations, you will see even if we achieve that reduction by 20 per cent, it will have a direct implication on the cost of goods in the supermarkets,” the PS said.
A few weeks ago, there were blame games between the Kenya Ports Authority, the Kenya Revenue Authority and Kenya Railways over the pace of evacuation of cargo leading to congestion.
KPA absolved themselves from blame, saying their work, including ensuring cargo is offloaded from ships efficiently, had always been impeccable, pointing an accusing finger at the KRA and KR.
“We do our job well. It is the other agencies that are to blame. Once we have offloaded cargo from the ship, our work stops there,” a senior KPA manager said.
On Thursday, Kibicho said they are anticipating increased volume of cargo once China, which has been on holiday, resumes manufacturing.
He said once their economy opens and manufacturing resumes, there will be as many as 4,000 containers arriving at the port a day.
Currently, only about 1,100 containers are received at the Mombasa port a day.
On Monday, Northern Corridor Transit and Transportation Coordination Authority executive secretary Omae Nyarandi said Kenya has to take advantage of the increased cargo through the Northern Corridor.
Although cargo volumes through the Mombasa port reduced by about 300-400 tonnes in overall throughput during the pandemic, cargo destined to DRC, Rwanda and South Sudan increased.
This, according to Nyarandi, was because the three countries had more confidence in Kenya because of the Covid-19 protocols it had established and implemented as opposed to the Port of Dar es Salaam and the Central Corridor.
“This is the momentum that, as the port community and Northern Corridor Charter signatories, we need to keep,” Nyarandi said.
Shippers Council of Eastern Africa CEO Gilbert Langat said there was an upsurge of vessels calling on the port of Mombasa towards the end of the last quarter in November and December last year following relaxation of restrictions occasioned by Covid-19 pandemic.
This resulted in delays, with up to 14 ships waiting at sea.
“When that happens, shipping lines, which operate on international logistics framework, impose surcharges of between $150 and 300 (approximately Sh16,500 and Sh33,000) to any cargo that was coming through the Port of Mombasa,” Langat said at PrideInn Paradise Beach Hotel.
However, he said there are no ship waiters at the port currently.
Langat said the rail capacity can only carry about 47 per cent of the cargo that comes through the port.
“What happens to the other cargo? That is the discussion that we are now having with the government, KPA and other relevant institutions to ensure that the port remains as fluid as possible,” he said.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI