Kenya urged to build own ferries, ships

Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho (left) welcomes Ugandan High Commissioner to Kenya Angelina Wapakhabulo (centre) and Damen Shipyard’s Director of Civil and Modular Construction Marcel Karsijns during the pre-launch of the Ugandan ferry named Albert Nile-1 at the Mombasa Ferry in Mombasa County on Wednesday. The ferry has been built in Kenya. [Photo: Kelvin Karani/Standard]

The politics of Kenya's preference for imports was displayed on Wednesday when Uganda accepted a ferry manufactured by a Kenyan company at a Mombasa-based shipyard.

The irony was that Kenya has just ordered for the construction of two ferries from a Turkey shipyard even as Uganda's MV Albert 1 was being built at the Southern Engineering Company (Seco) shipyard on Mombasa Island.