You will not run Mombasa port, Mungatana tells governor Joho

Embattled Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho was on Tuesday told there was no way he could take over the management of the port in his county.

Kenya Ports Authority chairman Danson Mungatana termed it “impossible” for Mombasa County to take over the management of the port.

He was reacting to a threat by the governor that he would mobilise residents to forcibly take control of the port if the Senate failed to push through a law allowing the country’s gateway to be devolved.

Mr Mungatana said the port was a national and international facility because it serves Kenya as well as neighbours Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, northern Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The port, he reminded the governor, is a national asset as per the KPA Act, and it would be illegal for him to take over the facility.

The KPA boss said the port had international status since it serves other East African Community member states.

“There is no way the Mombasa governor can take over the port as it is legally a national asset.

“The port is also an international facility as neighbouring countries depend on it. In this case, the governor cannot handle issues dealt by Heads of State,” he said.

The KPA chairman said that if Mr Joho took over the port, that would mean that his Kisumu, Eldoret and Nairobi counterparts would also claim the port and airports in their areas.

“We have an instance where electricity is generated at Kindaruma dam but I have never heard the area governor demanding to manage the facility as it is a national asset,” he said.

“When an asset falls in a particular county does not mean that it cannot be a national asset. After all the counties are part of the Republic of Kenya,” he told journalists on the sidelines of an Agricultural Society of Kenya event at Mkomani showground in Mombasa.

Mr Joho has been lobbying for the port to be handed over to the county, arguing that the money allocated to the region by the National Government was not sufficient to run its budget.

On Monday, he said that although the port was in Mombasa, residents were not benefiting because the revenue generated there went to the National Government.

Efforts by the county to impose $2 (Sh174) levy per tonne of cargo handled at the port hit a brick wall last year after KPA bosses said they were not consulted over the matter.

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The budget document had said that the KPA management would collect the levy on behalf of the county.

Mr Mungatana said he was not aware of the intended levy.

And at the ground breaking ceremony to launch a water pipe extension in Likoni, Mr Joho Tuesday told his detractors to stop meddling in Mombasa politics and his quest to have resources transferred to the county.

“When my term ends, the President will not be accountable. I will be answerable to my people who will want an explanation on my success and failures,” he told the ceremony at Mrima Primary School.

Mr Joho claimed that the National Government had sabotaged the road maintenance programme in the county by not allocating funds and the remedy to that was to devolve resources for the county to sustain itself.

“When I push for the Kenya Ports Authority and the ferry to be under the county, I am asking more revenue for the residents of Mombasa,” he said.

The governor said residents were putting him under pressure for development and failure to allocate funds for infrastructure was slowing down the pace of progress.

“I will not be threatened by those yapping and indulging in petty politics. I will be implementing projects for development since I promise to deliver service,” he said.

On water, Mr Joho said that the Mombasa Water and Sewerage Service Company would provide all the households in the county with fresh water by 2016.