Leaders open dock in Mombasa
(3L-R): Presidents Museveni, Paul Kagame and Uhuru Kenyatta flanked by other officials during the commissioning of Berth No 19 at Mombasa Port yesterday. PPU PHOTO
What you need to know:
The facility will enable docking of large container ships with a bigger cargo volume.
Mombasa
The presidents of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda yesterday commissioned the widest and deepest berth yet at Mombasa Port in a ceremony steeped with pragmatic and symbolic meaning.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said the opening of Kenya Ports Authority’s berth No. 19 was part of his government’s “wholesale commitment” to making Mombasa the largest, busiest and most business-friendly sea-port on the East African coast. He noted that although cargo volume at the port had risen over the last decade, capacity was still lower than the 900,000 twenty equivalent units (TEUs) demand.
“Before the present expansion, the terminal was designed to handle an annual capacity of 250,000 TEUs, but the demand is 900,000 TEUs,” President Kenyatta said. “Obviously, we still have some way to go.” He added that the new facility would enable the berthing of large container ships and with its 15 acres of stacking yard, would provide additional annual capacity of 200,000 TEUs. “The completion of dredging of the navigable channel and widening of the turning basin would significantly improve the port’s operational efficiency,” the President said.
The new $66.7 million (about Shs170t) berth is 240 metres long and is the deepest on the East African seaboard. Dar es Salaam, the other major port, is also adding berths and Tanzania plans a new port in Bagamoyo. President Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda both welcomed the improvements at Mombasa, which handles most of the import and export trade for the two landlocked countries.
President Kagame lauded President Kenyatta’s government for “hitting the ground running” by working to improve infrastructure and reducing non-tariff barriers on trade in the region. President Kenyatta has made reducing the cost of doing business through Mombasa one of the key priorities of his first term and he reemphasised that commitment. “This is call of our time,” he said, adding that as the custodians of the gateway to East Africa, Kenya has to do more as its “brothers’ keeper” to improve facilities at Mombasa.
The ceremony was a follow-up to a summit the three presidents held in Entebbe, Uganda in June at which they undertook the most ambitious joint infrastructure projects yet. Although the event was a trilateral engagement, President Museveni was invited to declare the new berth open in his capacity as the current chairman of the EAC.
Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi did not attend the June summit neither did they attend the ceremony yesterday. South Sudan, which did not attend the earlier meeting, was represented by a minister yesterday. After commissioning the berth, the regional leaders held a closed-door meeting to discuss financing options for a new standard-gauge railway line expected to run from Mombasa to Kigali with a spur to Kisumu and Southern Sudan.
