Kenya Ports unveil ambitious expansion plans

TERRY HUTSON AN AMBITIOUS 15-year port master plan announced in Nairobi last week by Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) calls for the privatisation of terminals, expansion of the Mombasa container terminal, and a new seaport, with the KPA taking on a landlord role. KPA’s reinstated MD Brown Ondego said the Mombasa container terminal expansion would be financed with US$110m (R660m) provided by the Japanese government. This includes reclaiming 44ha from the sea and deepening the water alongside to -15m. Additional finance will be raised locally. He said that by 2010 the KPA’s role would be that of port planning, regulation, management and development together with marketing, concessioning and asset management, while all cargo operations will be concessioned to private terminal operators. The port would also develop a 12ha free trade zone along the lines of Dubai's free trade shopping area. Mombasa currently handles about 80% of Kenya's, Uganda's and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s containerised cargo and has experienced a 27% growth in the past 12 months. Ondego said the container terminal was now 60% utilised but additional growth at Mombasa was expected following the resumption of peace in neighbouring southern Sudan. In the accounting year for 2004 Mombasa handled 12.92mt of cargo, up 8.3% from 2003. He acknowledged that strong competition would continue to come from Djibouti, Dar es Salaam and Durban.