​REMARKS BY THE ACTING MANAGING DIRECTOR AMB. JOHN MWANGEMI, DURING THE KPA CORPORATE GOLF TOURNAMENT AT KAKAMEGA SPORTS CLUB ON 19TH MARCH 2022

•       The Acting Chairlady Dr. Beatrice Shikuku

•       The Captain, Mr. Pape Sembi

•       Distinguished Golfers,

•       Stakeholders,

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening.

Introduction

I am pleased to welcome you to the KPA Corporate Golf Dinner at this gorgeous Kakamega Sports Club. My sincere hope is that you enjoyed the game during the day and have mastered a trick in your endeavor to improve your handicaps.

Although we have previously held similar tournaments in this region, this is the first time we are hosting one in Kakamega. This initiative is part of our social outreach programmes in the western circuit of the northern transport corridor that originates at the Port of Mombasa.

The reason for our presence here is simple; to enhance meaningful social and business interactions with you because of the critical role you play in supporting regional maritime and land-based trade.

These efforts will enable us to understand further your unique business and other socio-economic needs in the continued efforts to improve our mutually beneficial relations. We therefore urge you to feel free and engage the KPA team on issues of interest, concern and importance to you.  

Ports as catalysts to economic growth

Ports play a catalytic role in facilitating trade and spurring economic growth; they are the start and end of supply chains as cargo is moved through transport corridors to reach the end users.

The East and Central Africa region is served by two major transport corridors namely: the central corridor and the northern corridor through the Ports of Dar-es-salaam and Mombasa respectively. This weekend, therefore we are appreciative to be engaging stakeholders from a region that is heavily served by the Northern corridor and by extension the Port of Mombasa.

It is normal for most people especially those who are thousands of miles away from ports or are not directly involved in import and export business to easily downplay the role ports play in their lives. This unfortunately is a misconception.

The reality is that ports have a direct and indirect socio-economic impact to every citizen of any given country. Take a pause and jog your imagination for a few seconds. Of all that constitutes the transport and construction industry; road trucks, road construction machinery, fuel to power the industry, bitumen iron and steel for construction of roads, houses and many more. Now focus on all the items you have in your households; furniture, electrical appliances, garments name it.

What of the agricultural sector? Fertilizers, tractors, harvesters, milling machinery, and many more. All these come into the country through the port.  History has it that even the first-grade cow plus its owner came to the country by sea before the discovery of artificial insemination technology.

To reach the world markets, ports play an equally important role in facilitating our exports namely coffee tea and minerals; which would otherwise be inaccessible to these global markets.

Having mentioned the relationship between ports, transport corridors and citizens, it is easier now to understand why an efficient transport logistic chain translates to an affordable cost of living and vice versa. Efficiency levels of a transport corridor impacts on the prices of imports and exports and the ultimate cost bearer is the consumer – in this case the mwananchi.

The devolution of governance and growth of towns in the western region has meant an increase in economic activities translating to business opportunities which KPA is keen to support through provision of efficient port services at Mombasa, Naivasha and Kisumu.

The rehabilitation and expansion of these facilities that bring services closer to hinterland customers, with resultant rise in cargo volumes has signaled the immense untapped potential of western region as an import and export market destination.

Towns like Kakamega, Kitale, Kisumu, Busia and Malaba are vibrant agricultural hubs with major production and booming businesses to match. KPA therefore has put up plans to match this demand by investing in the development of infrastructure.

One of the planned projects is construction of a marshalling yard at Malaba aimed at eradicating the incessant heavy traffic congestion at the Malaba border. This will offer a permanent solution to conquer the heavy traffic gridlock which is witnessed at the Malaba border sometimes extending to approximately 50 km towards Bungoma.

Upon completion, the marshalling yard will remove the trucks from the road, improve efficiency at the border point while improving the welfare of the drivers.

The rehabilitation of Kisumu port has also increased trade within the region and cargo volumes handled through the port, with vessel frequency between   the Jinja- Kisumu route ever increasing.

Kenya Ports Authority is also planning to develop other small lake ports that will further open up the region to more trade opportunities. These facilities include Sio, Kendu, Mbita, Muhuru, Homa Bay, Kowuor, Mfangano, Korungu and Usenge.

Other Infrastructural Developments

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have also advanced the development of other priority infrastructure at our ports because we understand the role superior infrastructure plays in complementing efficient port services.

Key among these is;

  • Construction of a modern state of the art Kipevu Oil Terminal which is poised to be the biggest oil terminal in the region with four berths with a capacity to handle up to three oil tankers at ago. This will significantly reduce waiting time for oil tankers hence enhancing our port performance.
  • The new Kipevu Oil Terminal will have capacity to accommodate bigger vessels of up to 170,000 DWTs.

     
  • Construction of phase two of the second container terminal that will increase the port's annual capacity by an additional 450,000 TEUs annually. Upon completion it will increase the port's annual capacity from 1.65 million TEUs to 2.2 million TEUs.

Both these projects will be commissioned soon having attained 96 and 90 percent completion rate respectively.

 

  • Construction of second commercial port in Lamu – The 23 projected berth seaport is located in Manda Bay in Lamu which is 200 km North of Mombasa. We have completed the construction of the first phase which consists of 3 berths and yard. Each berth is 400 m long with a depth of -17.5 m able to handle larger vessels making it an attractive transshipment hub. We operationalized the first berth as from May 20, 2021 and so far we have received 11 vessels.   

Port performance and 2022 Outlook

At Kenya Ports Authority, 2022 is the year we seal our recovery and comeback. We have weathered a heavy storm in the last two years but we have a reason to be cautiously optimistic as we slowly turn the tide.

For instance, at the height of covid-19 pandemic in 2020, most ports in the African region experienced a fall in the number of bigger vessels calling its ports. As Europe and Asia focused on key international routes in the supply chain, most ports in our region were served by smaller feeder vessels ultimately contributing to a drop in the overall volumes handled at the port of Mombasa.

We are glad to note that this trend slowly eased in 2021, as most countries fully reopened to trade and resumed the usual supply chains.

It is for this reason that the Port of Mombasa registered a slight improvement in performance for the year 2021.

Between January to December 2021, the Port recorded a total cargo throughput of 34.5 million tons against 34.1 million tons in 2020. This represents an increase of 428,037 tons translating to a 1.3 percent growth. This also surpassed 2019 performance by 0.3 percent.

Similarly, container traffic increased from 1.36 million TEUs between January to December 2020 to 1.43 million TEUs during the same period in 2021.This represents a marginal increase of 75,671 TEUs or a 5.6 percent growth, surpassing 2019 performance by 1.3 percent.

Corporate Social Investment Initiatives

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before I hand over for the award ceremony, let me mention that it has always been our culture and policy to give back to our host community whenever we hold our golf events.

We believe in philanthropy and we play our role to ensure we support our stakeholder communities in whichever way we can to alleviate socio-economic challenges, through our Corporate Social Investment Program.

Prior to this dinner event, KPA yesterday presented a donation of assorted items worth 300,000 shillings to the Kakamega School for the deaf. This is the only school in the county that supports students with hearing impairments by teaching sign language.

Other than this donation, KPA has also intervened especially in the areas of education, health, environment and sports by supporting different initiatives and projects in other parts of the country where we have a presence.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Conclusion.

I wish to congratulate the winners and all those who participated in this tournament. I wish to also thank the organizers and the club owners for their warm reception and hospitality.

Thank you and God bless you.