KPA and petitioners want five judges to determine port dispute

Newly appointed Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Managing Director Dr.Arch.Daniel Manduku (3rd from right) is introduced to senior terminal engineering staff during a familiarization tour of the port of Mombasa, June 6, 2018. [Gideon Maundu/Standard]

Two parastatals have supported a petition to have a five-judge bench determine a port operations dispute between national and Mombasa County governments.

Yesterday, lawyers for the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and the Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC) agreed with petitioners to have Chief Justice David Maraga constitute a bench to hear a petition that seeks a transfer of port operations from the national government to the county. The Attorney General and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure did not oppose the petition.

Yesterday, the parties that had filed their submissions before Justice Eric Ogola said it was necessary to constitute a panel of judges to hear the matter since it raised weighty issues of national and public importance.

Port operations

Three petitioners, William Odhiambo Ramogi, Asha Mashaka Omar and Gerald Lewa Kiti want entire operations of the port left to the county.

The three have sued the AG, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure CS, KPA and KRC for transferring operations of the Port of Mombasa to Embakasi Internal Container Deport.

The three, through lawyer Nyambura Kihoro, applied to have a five-judge bench make a declaration that the September 30, 2014 agreement between KPA and KRC moving port operations to Nairobi through Standard Gauge Railway threatened the social and economic rights of Mombasa residents.

Yesterday, KPA lawyer Billy Kongere said the port was a national security installation and that its management and the persons responsible for it was a weighty subject.

KRC lawyer Anne Kaguri said the petition raised various substantial issues that not only affected the petitioners but the entire public and the East African region.