Ocean waters under Kenya’s jurisdiction cover about 128,015km squared and a distance of 200 nautical miles offshore, while navigable inland waterways cover approximately 10,700 square kilometers. This is slightly more than the total land surface area of 31 out of the 47 counties. This area of the sea and inland waters is what constitutes Kenya’s maritime domain. For the first time, the country has a department for shipping and maritime affairs in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government. The Star spoke to the department’s first PS, Nancy Karigithu, to find out more about the rich but unexploited sector.
What plans do you have for this country as the first Ps to head a Shipping & Maritime Affairs department?
We are grateful that the maritime sector has gained new visibility through the creation of a dedicated State Department, as this will help focus on and integrate national development agenda with the maritime domain issues. We plan to use this new platform to champion the industry, to integrate a maritime approach into national development plans, to maximise the competitive advantage of having the maritime sector as the new unexplored and unexploited pillar of national development, to create a recognition and new appreciation of this economic resource idleness, and thus foster the creation of a new phase that will catalyse development of the country.
What are the sector’s prospects?
While the maritime industry drives 92 per cent of the country’s international trade, its full potential is yet to be harnessed and exploited. With the recent discoveries and expected exploitation of offshore oil and gas, both in Kenya and in the region, cargo volume at the Mombasa port is expected to grow and put pressure on the developments in port and auxiliary infrastructure, as well as maritime security, all of which have renewed focus on the maritime sector as a key driver to wealth and job creation.
The country has long yearned to tap into the blue economy. how far are we with the dream?
I think the elevation of the Shipping & Maritime Affairs into a fully fledged state department is the biggest step to realising this dream. The department becomes the vision carrier for the sector, to articulate the policies needed and to bring fresh thinking for the benefit of the industry and the economy as a whole. This is a major milestone in this country. We are headed somewhere.
What are the major challenges facing the country’s maritime sector?
The maritime sector, by definition, refers to trade facilitation; marine environmental protection; ports and transport corridors; exploitation
of resource like fisheries; extractive industries like offshore mining; and recreational and
leisure activities,
like cruise shipping, sports fishing, diving, boating, etc.
In total, the industry holds 13 sectors, 15 subsectors and 87 different activities in the public and private sector. The business of all these maritime activities is generally interconnected, and a decision in one area may adversely affect the performance in another.
Due to the multiplicity of players, the subsectors need to be checked to ensure they do not work as disparate entities but must refer and synchronise their operations with each other.
Conscious effort must be made to draw out the potential in each part so they complement each other to grow the industry as a whole and the national economy generally. The above reality calls for a coordinated, sustained effort to exploit the inter-connectedness of industries and the human activities centreed on the maritime domain. This is where an integrated and cross-sector maritime policy approach becomes imperative – the Integrated National Maritime Policy (INMP) becomes the best tool to drive the sector’s development and enable all the subsectors of the national economy to contribute.
What is the best way to go about developing the sector?
An Integrated National Maritime Policy is the vehicle through which the entire industry’s sustainability can be ensured. The policy becomes the basis for national development plans. It drives legislation and rules that facilitate and enable the sound management of ocean and sea resources, to ensure sustainable development and optimise gains in the maritime sector. An INMP combines social, economic, technical and scientific information to help related resource management agencies understand and make trade-offs for consequences of any decisions that may extend beyond their traditional roles and responsibilities. This process thus enables the different maritime clusters to innovate, improve productivity,
enhance access to employees, suppliers and information, exploit complementarities, create new businesses and engage the local citizens in job and wealth creation.
Therefore, the development and implementation of an integrated approach to maritime issues is a matter of grave urgency. Such an approach will be the best tool to harness the efforts of all government and private institutions active in Kenya’s maritime domain as well as provide the framework and actions necessary to launch Kenya’s assault towards becoming a modern blue economy.
What do we need to do to fully exploit our resources?
Human resource capacity building remains key to developing the maritime domain. It will enhance the capabilities and productivity of all sectors of the blue economy, that is fisheries, tourism, maritime transport and their related support services such as facilitation of seamless and efficient flow of goods in trade.
In this context, therefore, it is urgent now, more than ever, to focus our attention on maritime education and training, especially in engineering, naval architecture and other maritime technical courses. The availability of a pool of young, well-trained and highly skilled personnel is important to guarantee and secure the future of maritime projects and the industry in general. Indeed, during the first National Maritime Conference held in February last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed that a Maritime Centre of Excellence be created. In this regard, maritime education and training takes centre stage in the department’s plans and engagement.
What plans do you have to support seafaring in the country?
The most important thing right now is to link the training programmes with job availability. We are working on creating partnerships with friendly nations, bilateral certificate recognition agreements with other Whitelist states, labour exchange deals with other shipping states, and recognition and labour agreements with appropriate states so Kenyans can then become eligible to work on such ships and ship management companies. It is a multi-pronged approach with many different approaches.
Capacity building calls for innovative thinking, as a big number is required. The advantage here is that knowledge, technology, and human talents are all “horizontal vectors” in the maritime world today. In other words, they are borderless in nature. This means, therefore, that as Kenyans, we can take advantage and make our youth
productive and competitive in the global maritime industry world, thanks to the advancement of, for example, ICT.
You plan to set up a Centre of Specialisation, as envisaged in Vision 2030. What will this mean for the country?
We expect it to partner with In partnership with experienced institutions in undertaking technical vocational training to equip our youth with the skills to work in the oil and gas industries (such as underwater wielding and painting), as well as the wider maritime sector (ship repair and boat building).
We will also have Graduate Technical Academy. This is a job-market approach aimed at tapping at re-tooling technical graduates with hands-on skills that can be applied in the maritime sector. We will also have Delivery of Certification Courses leading to the accreditation of engineers and technicians in line with international maritime labour standards. This aims to make Kenyans eligible for jobs in an industry that is international in nature and whose eligibility cuts across many jurisdictions.
The resultant maritime workforce will be expected to serve local as well as the global maritime industry.
Do Kenyans understand the maritime sector?
As I have stated before the maritime sector is one of the least understood sectors in Kenya and therefore even the small issues that can yield monumental gains do not become very obvious. A lot of awareness of how this sector affects the socio-economic fabric of the Kenyan society is imperative, both within and outside government.
As reflected in the international theme for this year’s World Maritime Day, shipping is indispensable to the world. We are therefore involved in undertaking awareness campaigns across the board, including targeting young people in schools and also universities.
Most important is sensitising stake-holders on the need to embrace the maritime cluster
concept.
The MC is acknowledged as the most effective tool for analysing the economic activities in the maritime industry. This generally refers to the network of firms, research, development and innovation units and training organisations.
Which are some of the best practices we can adopt to integrate with the sector?
Because maritime activities are generally interconnected,the clusters must innovate, improve productivity, improve access to employees, suppliers and information, exploit complementarities, give birth to new businesses, and engage the local citizens.
The biggest challenge we have as a country is failing to take account of the inter-connectedness of industries and human activities centered on the sea. The Integrated Maritime Policy development process now underway will help address some of these gaps and concerns.
The country does not have any vessel (ship) despite being a key player and gateway to the East and Central Africa, Any plans to invest in vessels?
It is true that Kenya does not at the moment have any ships. The Merchant Shipping Act however creates the legal provisions for different ship ownership models other than outright purchase.
Options like bare-boat charter have been used by states to create tonnage for their registers. In this regard the department is spearheading the re-structuring of the Kenya National Shipping Line. A new Strategic Plan has been developed with a very dynamic business model aimed at transforming the company. Some of the proposals include seeking government policy support in having GOK cargo lifted by the KNSL as a strategy towards building capacity in cargo lifting and routing.
Where do you see Kenya’s maritime sector in the next 10 years?
I believe in our country’s ability to transform into a major maritime nation on the eastern seaboard in the next ten years; a net exporter of seafarers, a bustling maritime center in the region with two major international sea ports.
With regard to seafarers education and training, Kenya can become a net exporter of workforce to the global shipping industry in line with the economic and social pillars of Vision 2030; and we can train 10,000 Kenyan seafarers in 10 years and place them on foreign sea going ships.
This is possible, with the right policy direction and strategies, well-trained human resources to champion and undertake production based on resources found in the maritime domain.
The critical challenge is to initiate and realise a sustainable, seamless supply system of qualified national seafarers for all maritime clusters on a big enough scale to satisfy the country’s needs as well as feed into the global demand for maritime personnel.
We are going to prioritise the areas which carry the strongest promise for growth, innovation and employment and the maritime sector is currently the strongest.