KENYA: Post-election turmoil causes huge backlog at Mombasa port

Record ID: 361406

  • Title: KENYA: Post-election turmoil causes huge backlog at Mombasa port
  • Date: 5th January 2008
  • Summary: DOCKED CARGO SHIP MORE CONTAINERS AT DOCK MAN WALKING PAST SHIP VARIOUS OF MOBILE CRANE AT PORT
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Industry,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5UYGB82G37AORESHK4HV8M7CM
  • Story Text: Kenya's main port, a lifeline for regional economies, is struggling to cope with a huge backlog of cargo as post-election violence has crippled road transport out of Mombasa according to the ports authority.
    Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, eastern Congo and South Sudan all import merchandise through Mombasa. The World Bank says Kenya is the transit point for a quarter of Uganda and Rwanda's GDP and one-third of Burundi's.
    Mombasa's port also handles most of the region's food aid shipments.
    The U.N.'s World Food Programme said Kenya's turmoil has blocked shipments to Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    Abdalla Mwarua, Managing Director of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) agreed.
    "We are being threatened of rallies and skirmishes, very few people would like to expose their trucks for fear of them being burnt or something like that," he said.
    Kenyan businesses are reeling from a wave of ethnic clashes over President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election win that has slowed down economic activity and hurt the key tourism sector.
    As of Thursday containers equivalent to 17,587 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) were moored in Mombasa port, which has a holding capacity of only 14,300 TEUs.
    That translates to 12,850 containers -- a quarter of them destined for countries in the east and central African region, Osero said.
    The KPA said only 36 containers were taken out of the port on Thursday by road, three of which were transit cargos. Normally the port handles 550 containers a day.
    "We are really facing a lot of pressure, ships are arriving. At the moment we have just berthed one vessel that was waiting, we still have six more, we are expecting a few other vessels and we want to use this weekend now to work through," said Abdalla.
    The delay was compounded by difficulties in rail transport with trains not arriving at the port on Friday.
    The port authority added that in the next two weeks about 30 ships were expected to call at the port, of which three are oil tankers.
    Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda are experiencing fuel shortages as a result of disruption of supply lines to the port.
    Mombasa port handled 484,462 TEUs in the first 10 months of 2007, compared with 396,556 in the year-ago period.
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