Kenya Maritime
Industry
Kenya recorded association with maritime trade dates back to the
19th century when the Arabs from Oman established Manda Island
250km north coast of Mombasa as their base and port.
Despite the long
history of maritime industry in the country. The industry has been
dogged behind by corruption, tribalism, nepotism and lack of
political will. For the past 12 years the government of Kenya has
been collecting Ksh.500 million annually from the shippers as
merchant shipping levy of cargo interest.
It hurts very much to note that this big amount of money has not
been accounted for and no one knows its where about.
Apart from lack of accountability and transparency the Kenya water
ways has been used by international drug barons, human traffickers
and the illicit arms dealers such as Victor Bout commonly known as
‘Anatoliyevich’.
The under table deals in the Kenyan government are also linked to
the regional IMO office in Nairobi and the Dar- es -Salaam
Maritime Institute (DMI).
It is dis -heartening to note that the IMO is blindly funding for
training of Kenyans from one single tribe at the DMI .It also
beats reasons as to why the IMO is paying for a hostel which
belongs to the financial manager of DMI.
Apart from training the IMO is also blindly funding a moribund
Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) in Mombasa.
There is no need of having an MRCC which does not give assistance
neither response to distress calls from Ocean-going vessels in the
region.
It is dis graces to say that, in the past 9 months several
Ocean-going vessels have been sent out distress calls but they
received no response neither assistance from the Mombasa MRCC.
Despite of having an MRCC in Mombasa we still depend on South
Africa, the UK and the Norway based Search and Rescue Centers
(SAR).
The UK co-ordination centre at Falmouth has regularly been helping
with rescue in the region linking with nearest regional centre in
South Africa.
As we strongly believe
that:
-
The on-going training
of Kenyans from one tribe at the DMI is questionable;
-
The activities of the
Mombasa MRCC are questionable;
-
The collection of
Merchant shipping levy from the shippers is wanting;
We call upon the
Interpol to investigate and take appropriate action.
Andrew Mwangura
Seafarers Assistance Program
Andrew Mwangura
P.O. Box 92273
Mombasa,80102 Kenya.
Cell:00254 721 393458
Fax: 00254 41 230001
E Fax:18014093908