ANDREW MWANGURA spoke to DISRUPTION on a range of issues bedeviling the Port of Mombasa. Unknown to many accident statistics at the Port and terminal of Mombasa between 2021-2022 will leave you livid. Since 2012, 1112 workers have lost their lives to occupational accidents at the Port. The cruel nature of these deaths and the fact that no one is held liable calls for urgent action. EDITOR

DISRUPTION: What are some of the strides that the Port management can speak about today?

MWANGURA: Since 2017, the shipping industry has made some great strides in the direction of environment friendly methods and techniques. The industry embraced technology in a big way, LPG as a marine fuel, new BWTS standards, the implementation of ECDIS, a move towards autonomous ships, improved port infrastructure among other developments dominated the headlines and showcased the changing face of the global shipping industry.

DISRUPTION: With these changes are all sticky issues fixed and is the Port and its community sorted?

MWANGURA: While there have been great advancements across the sector, the wellbeing of day-workers and seafarers still needs attention and due effort. The issues range from worries such as overtime to bigger problems such as abandonment. Day-workers and Seafarers have to deal with physical aspects such as fatigue and psychological problems like depression and stress. With the industry growing rapidly and expanding in every direction, the humane aspects must be brought into sharp focus and studies must be undertaken to understand better the life of the seafarer and day-worker.

DISRUPTION: Talk to me about the geography of the Port?

MWANGURA: The Port of Mombasa is the principal Kenyan seaport and comprises of Kilindini Harbor and Port Reitz on the Eastern side of the Mombasa Island and the Old Port and Port Tudor north of the Mombasa Island. Kilindini is naturally deep and well sheltered and is the main harbor where most of the shipping activities take place. It has 16 deep water berth, two oil terminals and safe anchorages and mooring buoys for sea-going ships. The Old Port is entered between Ras Serani and Mackenzie Point and is used only by dhows and small coastal vessel of 55 meters LOA. A cement loading facility is located opposite the old port jetty at Ras Kidomoni (English Point) for bulky cement carriers of up to 150 meters LOA and 8.0 meters draught. Mombasa Port, located in Mombasa City, is the largest port in the East Africa region.

DISRUPTION: How does the Port interact with Countries in the region?

MWANGURA: The port has strategic importance far beyond the borders of Kenya. As the largest port in East Africa, it is the main gateway for the import and export of goods not only for Kenya but also to countries of the East Africa Community (EAC), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Southern Sudan and southern Ethiopia. The Port of Mombasa, Kenya, is the most important port in East Africa.

DISRUPTION: What is the nature and volume of cargo that passes through Mombasa Port?

MWANGURA: In 2015 it handled 1.1 million containers (TEUs) and 26.7 million tons of bulk cargo, making it a key maritime node for the ‘Northern Corridor’ that links Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Eastern Congo, Northern Tanzania and Burundi. The port has sustained its cargo throughput of over one million TEUs annually, and the port managers predict steady growth in years to come courtesy of the ongoing infra structural development and promising economic fortunes for Kenya and the east African region. Statistics for 2016 indicates that port handled the highest volume ever of cargo – in terms of both TEUs and tonnage. In 2016 the port handled 1.09 million TEUs, which translates to 1.4 per cent growth from 1.08 of 2015. On the other hand, the volume of cargo in tonnage was 27.36 million tons, which translates to 2.4 per cent growth from 26.75 million tons handled in the previous year.

DISRUPTION: What is the port’s contribution to employment?

MWANGURA: There are 7,500 workers inside the port gates, a further 6,000 workers in container freight stations near the port, and thousands more in the logistics and warehousing operations in the surrounding area. There are over 2,300 long distance truck drivers operating along the Northern corridor road artery that starts at the Port of Mombasa in Kenya to the land locked countries of Uganda, Eastern Congo, Southern Sudan, Northern Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

DISRUPTION: What other activities take place at the Port of Mombasa?

MWANGURA: The Port of Mombasa is a regionally significant transport facility that serves Kenya and her land-locked neighbors. The primary purpose of the Port of Mombasa is to provide for activities that have a direct relationship with the use of the Port which include; the transport of goods into and out of the country, the processing and storage of products which pass through the it, and the storage of materials and equipment related to the operation of any marine based activities.

DISRUPTION: Is the Port serving its economic functions in the best possible way?

MWANGURA: The Port of Mombasa is an essential facility for the continued economic growth and wellbeing of the Mombasa, Kenya and the East African Region. In the last decade however, the port of Mombasa was dogged by a continuum of challenges including delays in clearance of goods; limited and outdated infrastructure; ineffective and inefficient systems; poor governance; accusations of environmental degradation; as well as a general lack of ownership from host and adjacent communities who feel left out in its management and benefits.

DISRUPTION: What value have we achieved from the Port reform programs?

MWANGURA: Port modernization and reform was a response to the challenges I mention above. The program was initially funded by the exchequer but also attracted the support of different organisations like Japanese International Corporation Agency, Trademark East Africa. The port of Mombasa also adopted the “Port Community System” an emerging trend in port management that makes available logistical information among the actors involved in port-related freight distribution, including freight forwarders that act as intermediaries for importers (consignees) or exporters (consignors), terminal operators that are the interface between the port foreland and hinterland, customs, ocean carriers, inland carriers and the port authority itself as well as the ship support services. Conventionally, the transactional relations between these actors were very complex, with some being unilateral and proprietary. The PCS effectively links existing databases and management systems through a web portal, particularly through the conversion of different formats.

DISRUPTION: Is the Port work environment safe?

MWANGURA: Recent accidents at the Mombasa port has claimed a total of 1,112 workers who have lost their lives while in the line of duty at the port of Mombasa since 2012 up-to-date. Two people died and six others were injured at the port of Mombasa after they were crushed by a machine as they handled fertilizer at shed number 7. The deceased were crushed to death in October 2020 when a silo bin they were using to offload the fertilizers collapsed. On 1st April 2022 a Tally Clerk was crushed to death in an accident involving a Terminal Tractor at Terminal 1.

DISRUPTION: Are there no mechanisms for making the Port a safe work environment?

MWANGURA: The International Safety Management (ISM) Code requires that master of a vessel pays attention to the safe working environment of his crew and non-crew members. KPA Safety Inspectors have the responsibility to check each vessel before she starts work, and monitor the operation 24/7 while the ships are in port. This is rarely done!!!

DISRUPTION: What do other countries do?

MWANGURA: In South Africa, ship contractors are licensed to operate within the port area and on board ship on condition that they adhere to strict safety practices and procedures, in addition to the requirement that they must have comprehensive insurance cover against injury or death at a work place. KPA does have similar requirements, but strangely in 2014 a crane fell into the sea at Berth No. 7 just as one of the employees of the lashing gang jumped off the quay and was drowned.

DISRUPTION: How can that be? Is human life so worthless at the Port?

MWANGURA: The Lashing Gang Contractor refused to claim from their insurance, whether or not they had any cover, and pressed the KPA to compensate the next of kin for the loss of their family member, citing that the accident occurred within the port area, etc. The man was sitting under the crane, which was forbidden by the KPA’s notice posted on the crane. This is not all; Over ten years ago, there was another case of a man in the Cargo Trimming Gang who was “drowned” in a bulk cargo of Wheat. He was working 24/7 without a break and fell asleep on top of a mountain of grain as it was sucked out of the ship by Vacuvator. The grain mountain slowly drained into a hole created by the Vacuvator, dragging the man into loose grain where he could not pull himself out. The ship was not held responsible because the man was overworked. Another recent case of a Lashing Gang Man who was squeezed between two heavy steel coils in ship’s hold to death, it was not the ship’s fault.

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