The onset of the Standard Gauge Railway project and the current war on contraband goods has placed the Kenya Ports Authority on the radar of many including the Government.
With the Government’s focus on the creation of an enabling business environment being on the Big Four Agenda: improved infrastructure as an enabler to economic development, the Port management will continue to be under pressure and its performance of great public interest.
And the pressure, within a space of limited information, has clouded the other things happening at the Port.
That it’s the major entry and exit point of goods including contraband, it’s the guarantor for the SGR loan and that its making major infrastructural investments, is not in question, and people want to know the its role and future, including responding to issues to the possibility of Kenyans losing to the loaners should SGR fail to perform, or its relevance with operations shifting to Nairobi inland container depot and with the entry of the dry port in Naivasha.
For public interest, these questions are relevant and information to the viability of the port will ease the anxieties Kenyans have on the same. The Port is stable and has a future.
The management of KPA should provide information to the public about what they are doing to ensure that the port will still remain very important to the region, Kenya and people from the Coast with these developments.
With the SGR having been completed 18 months earlier than scheduled, and the volume of goods way ahead of plans, by 2020, Kenya will be in a position to suffice the Exim Bank without challenges.
We just need to keep watch over the escrow account being run by KPA and Kenya Railway jointly as income from the SGR business, so that the money does not disappear or get diverted to other things, when 2020 comes.
With the passing of the Access to Information Act 2016, one hoped that proactive disclosure of information as an accountability measure will be embrace especially in the public sector. This will also enhance public participation and understanding of key government projects to create the necessary critical mass to support the government agenda.
Kenya Ports Authority still has more room in the East Africa region to manoeuvre. #PortManagement, #PortAdministration, #MaritimeBusiness #MultiModalTransport ##InterModalTransport #ContainerTerminal #FreightForwarding #GeneralCargo #TerminalOperator #Shi…https://t.co/n7tEPvbECq
— Jack David (@JDO_Kenya) October 16, 2018
Kenya Ports Authority Inland Container Depot in Nairobi . The loading and off-loading of cargo is 24/7 operations. Loading of SGR wagons at night. pic.twitter.com/gCG8jihPum
— milton mwaivu (@mmwaivu) October 17, 2018