Mombasa port shakes off post-election jitters
Kenya Ports Authority Managing Director Gichiri Ndua (left) receiving a book from Nation Media Group Chief Executive Linus Gitahi at the port's Berth 19. Mr Gitahi and a team of NMG's senior managers paid Mr Ndua a courtesy call Wednesday.
What you need to know:
- Kenya Ports Authority chairman Danson Mungatana said they had registered a 12.9 per cent rise by the first half of 2014 to 980,000 compared to last year.
- “The first challenge we are grappling with is the poor weather that is affecting visibility. Our facility is a tugboat-approach port and the heavy rains have affected us. Secondly, we have a power problem. We suffered a six-hour blackout last Monday.”
- An ongoing construction project had also brought about other challenges by reducing space for ships to dock.
Business at the Port of Mombasa has increased during the first half of the year following a slump blamed on the General Election of 2013.
Kenya Ports Authority chairman Danson Mungatana said they had registered a 12.9 per cent rise by the first half of 2014 to 980,000 compared to last year.
While the 903,000 container units mark was achieved in 2012, this fell to 894,000 last year.
“The port had handled 11.86 million tonnes of cargo by end of last June, which is a 12.9 per cent increase over last year. We look forward to surpassing figures of the last three years, going by the current trend,” he said.
Mr Mungatana spoke on Tuesday when two Indian Navy officials paid a courtesy call on him. They were Captain Nitin Kapoor and Capt A. K. Jolly, who is the commander of the Indian Naval Jamuna ship that docked off the port three days ago to conduct a two-month hydrographic survey on the Kenyan coast.
Mr Mungatana said port operations had been facing challenges in the last three weeks.
“The first challenge we are grappling with is the poor weather that is affecting visibility. Our facility is a tugboat-approach port and the heavy rains have affected us. Secondly, we have a power problem. We suffered a six-hour blackout last Monday.”
REDUCING THE DOCKING SPACE
An ongoing construction project had also brought about other challenges by reducing space for ships to dock.
“But all these challenges are being mitigated well and soon, we shall resume smooth operations,” Mr Mungatana said.
“By November, we hope to complete the Kipevu power sub-station project, which will go a long way in ending outages. We have responded to complaints by shipping agents and other stakeholders, whom we have brought on board as we tackle these challenges.”
