Relief for Mtongwe residents as Govt to restore ferry service in December

The government has announced it will reintroduce the ferry services at the Mtongwe Channel in December, a relief for thousands of Mtongwe residents in Mombasa County.

Transport Principal Secretary Irungu Nyakera announced the government will reintroduce the Mtongwe Ferry Service after the arrival of two new ferries that were purchased at a cost of Sh1.8 billion.

Speaking on Friday during his visit to Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) headquarters in Mombasa, the PS said the new vessels being built in Turkey will be much faster and also have a bigger capacity.

He said the first ferry will arrive in the county in December.

“The first ferry will be arrive in the country by December and the next by April next year. It will be a relief for residents of Mtongwe, close to 20,000 people will be transported every day through the Mtongwe channel and hence ease congestion at the Likoni Channel,” he assured the residents.

He said ultimately, two of the five existing ferries will be deployed to the Mtongwe channel.

The Mtongwe service was withdrawn in November 2011, after the national government decommissioned two old ferries for being unseaworthy.

DILAPIDATED STRUCTURES

Dilapidated infrastructure was also one of the reasons that made the government withdraw services from Mtongwe.

In 1994, in one of Kenya’s worst maritime accidents, more than 270 people died in a ferry disaster at Mtongwe.

The withdrawal of the vessels has put pressure on the Likoni Channel, which has been experiencing congestion from time to time as Mtongwe residents complain that since the withdrawal of the service, the value of their houses has since gone down.

Meanwhile The Kenya Ferry Services has launched a programme to replace all the engines of five ferries at Likoni in order to improve service delivery and efficiency at the channel connecting Mombasa Island to the South Coast mainland.

The ferries, MV Likoni, MV Kwale, MV Nyayo, MV Kilindini and MV Harambee are expected to undergo major engine overhaul to avoid the perennial breakdown of the ferries experienced at the Likoni crossing channel.

KFS chairman Ramadhan Kajembe said the programme of repairing the ferries is expected to be completed in November this year.

Currently only four ferries namely MV Likoni, MV Nyayo, MV Kilindini and MV Kwale are operating on the channel. MV Harambee was withdrawn for repair.

MV Harambee, one of the oldest ferry, is at the dry dock, where engineers are working on replacing its engine and the generators.

“KFS engineers are currently installing two new engines, which were bought at Sh22 million. Since we took office, you have seen changes at the ferry. We have very minimal breakdown cases,” he said.

On Friday last week, MV Likoni experienced mechanical breakdown after its control unit-steering system got burnt and it was withdrawn.

“We had to purchase the spare parts from Germany, and the ferry has now resumed operations at the channel,” Mr Kajembe said.

On his part, the KFS managing director Bakari Gowa said the replacement of the ferry engines will boost service delivery and improve efficiency at the crossing channel.

“We have been experiencing challenges but we have now embarked on ensuring all machines are serviced, as it is the practices across the world,” he said.