Kenya’s is unlikely to achieve its dream of exporting oil to its East African neighbours if the Kisumu oil jetty is not operational by June 2019, when Uganda commissions its own jetty.
It has emerged that the Sh1.7 billion facility, launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year, has serious flaws, according to an experts’ report.
It singles out poor workmanship, lack of mandatory facilities like firefighting equipment, lack of provision for spillage and inappropriate equipment as the major problems.
The report notes that the facility was fitted with low-capacity pipes and pumps used for loading trucks instead of the recommended ones for loading ships.
Investigations into comparative costs have established that the Kisumu facility cost almost three times as much as similar facilities in Africa.
The Uganda jetty, including its storage tanks, cost about Sh600 million.
According to the report, taxpayers will have to release another Sh500 million to make the Kisumu oil jetty usable.
After the completion of Uganda’s jetty in Port Bell, the country and its neighbours – Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo – can expect to be spared fuel shortages they sometimes experience, especially during periods of unrest in Kenya.
However, the jetty’s launch is dependent on the completion of the Kisumu facility.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that Tanzania is preparing to use its Mwanza depot to compete with Kenya’s jetty.
While the Kisumu jetty was supposed to ease the transportation of fuel to Uganda and neighbouring countries by allowing ships to load fuel from Kisumu and transport it to the Ugandan jetty, this will have to wait because it is not clear when the jetty’s structural weaknesses will be rectified.