Ruto revives plans to lease FIVE Kenyan ports after critising Uhuru for the same
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President Ruto revives plan to lease five ports in Sh1.4trn U-turn through public private partnership (PPP)
President Ruto revives plan to lease five ports in Sh1.4trn U-turn through public private partnership (PPP).
Through an ambitious Sh1.4 trillion public-private partnership (PPP) aimed at reviving the nation’s maritime economy, President William Ruto’s administration will lease the management and operations of five crucial ports.
The Kenya Development Corporation (KDC), a development finance institution, has revealed the Kenya Kwanza administration is looking for private players to run portions of Kilindini Harbour, Dongo Kundu Port, Lamu Port, Kisumu Port, and Shimoni Fisheries Port in an effort to make the northern corridor competitive. This appears to be a change of heart from the previous administration’s proposal to hand ports to private investors.
“The ports are confronted with the challenge of congestion and, therefore, higher dwell times for cargo. The ports will be leased/concessioned to private operators with landlord-type port management system,” states the KDC in its pitch to potential investors.
Kenya’s trade route has recently come under intense competition with the landlocked countries of Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda preferring to use the Tanzanian route.
Both countries have sought to revamp their ports, or build new ones (Lamu Port in the case of Kenya and Bagamoyo in Tanzania), as they fight woo the landlocked countries by promising faster evacuation of cargo.
The northern corridor— a multimodal trade route linking the landlocked countries of the Great Lakes Region with the Kenyan maritime sea port of Mombasa—has been competing for cargo with Tanzania’s central corridor.
The Central Corridor is a transport and trading route that links Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo to Tanzania’s maritime.
Official data shows that the volume of cargo handled by Mombasa port dipped for the first time in five years with players pointing to rising competition from Dar es Salaam.
Total cargo passing through the port dropped to 33.74 million metric tonnes last year from 34.76 million tonnes the year before, data collated by the national statistician shows.
Part of the two countries’ plan to improve their respective trade routes has been to build Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), a modern railway that is faster and can carry more goods.
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At the height of the election campaigns last year, Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza Alliance opposed a similar plan that had been mooted by the previous administration of Uhuru Kenyatta, claiming the selected infrastructural assets had been secretly sold to Dubai Port World FZE.
The alliance alleged that Mr Kenyatta illegally sold the ports of Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu but the previous government noted that it had not entered into any agreement for the leasing of the assets.
But with the port of Mombasa coming under intense competition owing to its weak capacity, the Ruto government is turning to the private investors for a revamp.
The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and the Lapsset Corridor Development Authority have been designated as the implementing agencies of the planned leasing.
The State projects to raise Sh1.4 trillion ($10 billion) through the PPP exercise.
Further, the government is seeking up to Sh42.1 billion ($304 million) worth of private investment into the Port of Lamu, with a big chunk of the money being used to develop the port’s agribulk and liquibulk terminals.
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