Business
Mombasa port in a privatisation storm
A container is offloaded from a ship at Mombasa port. The Cabinet endorsed the project last December but there had not been any consultation with the region’s politicians and other stakeholders. Photo/FILE
Posted Monday, October 26 2009 at 00:00
Berths 11-14 were originally designed to handle general cargo but due to growth of containerised cargo, they are being used to handle container vessels using the ship’s gear.
The government now intends to convert these berths into a fully fledged container terminal with modern container handling equipment such as ship-to-shore gantry cranes.
This will require physical restructuring of the berths including strengthening of the quay to sustain the weight of the cranes.
The terminal will then be leased to a private operator while KPA remains the landlord authority, according to the planned privatisation.
The modernisation of the four berths, Mr Sang said, will increase the capacity at the port for containers by 1.2 million teus and added to the second container terminal in 2012, the port will have the capacity to handle 2.8 million teus.
This capacity was far above the needs according to Mr Sang, especially considering that the port was yet to have important way leave for handling other important cargo such as fertilizer.
Berths 11-14 are sometimes used for handling grains and fertilizers through convention method.
Following the intended conversion of the four berths, over 1,500 dockworkers who are working on the conventional offloading will lose jobs, according to Mr Sang, since there will be no space left for conventional cargo once the berths are converted.
The union, with a membership of over 5,000 port workers has already issued a seven-day strike notice demanding that the plans be shelved failure to which they will down their tools.
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