Hassan Joho announces partnership with ferry service
Passengers disembark from Mv Likoni at the Likoni channel in Mombasa on July 3, 2014. Commuters on the Likoni Channel could soon enjoy better services after the Mombasa County Government and Kenya Ferry Services joined hands to end the chaos. FILE PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT |
What you need to know:
- Governor meets with KFS MD over Likoni channel.
- One proposal is an additional vessel for the Mtongwe channel to ease congestion at Likoni.
There is new hope for commuters at the Likoni channel after the Mombasa government on Tuesday intervened to improve service delivery.
The government and the Kenya Ferry Services announced the formation of a joint task force to look into the problems bedevilling the channel.
Governor Hassan Joho announced after a meeting with Kenya Ferry Services Managing Director Musa Hassan that his government had decided to intervene after persistent challenges at the channel.
A joint statement released after the meeting said that the county would also look into possibilities of the acquisition of a vessel for the Mtongwe channel in order to decongest the Likoni channel.
It added that the purpose of the joint task force was to look into possible solutions to the current challenges faced by the organisation.
HIGH MAINTENANCE
Mr Hassan said in the statement that the problems were compounded by the aged vessels which had pushed maintenance costs very high.
“We have serious challenges in managing the ferries as most of them are old and require regular servicing. Thus the maintenance of the ferries has proved quite costly,” said Mr Hassan.
He said that more than 300,000 commuters cross the channel every day while the vehicular traffic was on the increase. More than 30,000 vehicles use the channel daily. This, he said, led to the ferries being overworked.
“We have agreed to form a joint task force so as to look into the challenges being faced by KFS and come up with a way forward on how the county of Mombasa can assist KFS in servicing and maintaining the existing ferries (and) the purchase of a ferry for Mtongwe to decongest the existing ferries,” said Mr Joho.
The governor said the objective of his government’s efforts was to enhance service delivery to the commuters who use the vessels daily.
In the recent past, the channel has been gripped by crises due to frequent breakdowns.
Queues extending several kilometers on both the island and mainland are a common daily sight while crowds of commuters pile up the ramps each morning in chaotic scenes.
The Likoni OCPD Willy Simba on Tuesday described the constant traffic jams as “excessive, unacceptable and unusual”, adding that a solution has to be found immediately.
