Mombasa port to remain open during festive period saysTransport and Infrastructure CS Michael Kamau

All Mombasa port users and stakeholders have been notified that normal operations will continue during the festive season as the facility will remain open.

Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau said this would ensure smooth operations and clearance of any backlogs at the country’s principal sea port.

“The shipping schedules clearly show that there are ships scheduled to call at the Port of Mombasa throughout this month of December and January next year. These ships shall require our services hence the need to organise our work schedules to avoid creating any congestion at the Port and along the corridor,” he said.

“The world does not stop simply because the festive season is here with us,” he told a stakeholder’s dinner at Severin Sea Lodge recently.

A Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) shipping schedule for the next two weeks indicates that at least 51 vessels, tankers and other conventional ships are expected at the Mombasa port, with various kinds of cargo. In order to make Mombasa port more efficient and competitive, construction of the second container terminal is ongoing, whose phase one is over 70 per cent complete and is expected to be operational by March 2016.

KPA is also planning construction of an alternative route from Mombasa Port to Burundi that will pass through Holili-Singida-Kobero border and finally to Bujumbura. “Towards this end, KPA has also acquired 50 acres of land at Taveta (Kenya – Tanzania border) to position itself to bring business closer to Burundians by establishing an Inland Container Depot,” said Engineer Kamau.

Completion of the new standard gauge railway connecting Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda with an extension to South Sudan is also expected to be a game changer in transport industry in the region.

Single Window

Already, a number of initiatives and projects have been completed at the Mombasa port. They include signing of the port community charter to ensure every agency plays its role in boosting the port’s performance. The Kenya National Single Window System which partially went live in October last year is also beeing implemented.

“We are working closely with the National Treasury to see that cargo  interventions are fully enabled to speedily and cost effectively execute cargo clearance electronically on a common platform,” said Engineer Kamau.

Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have also adopted the Single Customs Territory where transit importers can clear their cargo at the Port of Mombasa. Revenue assessment and collection is done at the first point of entry and revenues remitted to the destination partner states.