Major multinational port operators are yet again angling for a chance to manage key services at the ports of Mombasa and Lamu after they lost out in a botched tendering process in 2015.

But the renewed plan to concession services at the two ports has, predictably, been engulfed in a storm despite President William Ruto’s attempt to explain its economic implications.

Opposition politicians led by Raila Odinga have termed the plan as a plot by Kenya Kwanza regime to rip off the country, while unionists and logistics experts say it is shrouded in secrecy. Mombasa Governor Abduswamand Nassir has vowed to scuttle the plan if Coast leaders are not involved in the process.

Unionists and maritime experts have called for the process to start afresh to give all stakeholders a chance to give their input. Questions also linger on whether it is best to privatise, lease out or commercialise port services.

Analysts say the backlash, which has in the past led to shelving of the idea, is due to the government’s failure to involve all stakeholders or explain the idea to Kenyans.

Last month, KPA advertised for bidders from international terminal operators for the development and operations of port assets through public-private partnerships.

According to the advert, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) is seeking a private partner to develop berths 11 to 14 and container terminal 1 in Mombasa, and to run Lamu’s berth one to three.

Berths 11 to 14 are currently used for conventional or loose cargo (goods not packed in a container) but KPA wants to convert them into a container terminal- the East Container Terminal. 

Maritime trade analysts say this is because 90 per cent of cargo that passes through the Mombasa port is containerised. Proponents of the idea say it will raise capital for the projects.

They also argue that the entry of private entity removes bureaucracy, reduces the bloated workforce at KPA, and injects innovation leading to efficiency at the port.

But fears are also rife that selling off, concession, leasing, or commercialization of the ports could lead to job losses. Currently, KPA has 7,000-odd workers.

Shippers Council of Eastern Africa CEO Gilbert Langat questioned the process, saying it was being rushed without input from key stakeholders.

“The disadvantage is the interest of any private sector player who will come in is to make money. We should learn from other ports that have gone that route like Dar,” said Mr Langat.

Until this year, major services at the Dar es Salaam port were run by Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS). But after 20 years, analysts say services never improved.

“When TICTS took over services at Dar es Salaam, there were talks that it will overtake Mombasa. That was never the case as services deteriorated. We must be careful,” said Langat.

Reports indicate that TICTS contracts expired this year and the Government of Tanzania was in talks with DP World, a Dubai-based port operator, to run some operations at the port.

Job creation

Dock Workers Union General Secretary Simon Sang’ says there will be job losses at the Mombasa port if the services were leased to a private entity. Like other ports that have leased key services, Mr Sang’ says that more jobs will be created outside the port due to the efficiency of the facility, leading to investment in existing economic zones.

“Direct employment will be lost, say from the current 7,000 to 5,000 people. But indirect employment will go up, leading to revival of the city that is currently not doing well,” he said.

But critics of the union say that the officials are out to ring-fence their members'  subscriptions. The union has 5,000-odd members each contributing two percent of their basic salary.

Sang, however, says that although the idea to concession the port is under the Big 4 agenda, the 2017-2027 short-term national strategic plan, he opposed it because it was unclear.

“This idea came to light in 2021 when it was reported that the National Treasury CS had approached Dubai World to develop a special economic zone in Lamu,” said Sang.

The battle for the second container terminal started in 2014 when the government floated an international tender to concession the second container terminal.

DP World was among the 12 top world terminal operators that were shortlisted from a list of 19 that submitted their bids, according to a gazette notice dated April 10, 2015.

The firms that were shortlisted included Chinese-based China Merchant Holdings, Netherlands-based APM Terminals BV, and Dubai-based DP World Ltd.

Cosco Pacific Ltd, Bollore Logistics, Toyota, and Kamigumi Company Ltd submitted a joint bid as Group Maritim TCB, S.L, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Freight Forwarders Kenya.

However, PSA International, which had partnered with a local firm, Multiple Haulers, had the highest marks, with DP World emerging second, according to KPA reports.

But the process to sell off the 450,000-capacity terminal drew criticism from Coast politicians and the union who questioned the economic implications of selling the terminal.

The government stopped the process amid political and legal undercurrents and asked KPA to re-evaluate the technical bids afresh. KPA decided to run the facility.

According to the initial plan the terminal operator was expected to pay KPA a standing annual fee of $18.4 million (Sh1.7 billion) plus a commission based on cargo volumes.

Other sources said that one of the conditions by the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA), which funded the Sh27 billion terminal, was that it was to be run by a private firm.

Nassib Mbarak, a logistics expert in Mombasa, said the government can source money from private entities to develop the port without selling off or leasing the services.

“Why should we privatise a profit-making parastatal when there are those making losses? We privatised the one-metre railway line and look what became of it,” said Mr Mbarak.

Mbarak and Langat agreed that it was wrong for the process to start without the involvement of Coast leaders, especially the Mombasa and Lamu county governments.

“All over the world, port cities must get a share from the facility. Someone is trying to jump the ship. All stakeholders must be involved,” said Langat.

He said most marine transport experts agree that KPA should be converted into a landlord so that other services be commercialised to enhance efficiency and make it competitive.

“I was at Tangier Port in Morocco where all three terminals have been commercialised and everything is done by machines with a control room with only 15 people,” said Langat.

All three terminals of Tangier Port on the Mediterranean Sea are operated by APM Terminal, and owned by Denmark's Maersk, Germany's Eurogate, and a local firm.

Data from the World Bank shows that Tangier handled 107.8 million tonnes of cargo in 2022, a six per cent surge from 2021. Mombasa processed 35 million tonnes of cargo in 2022.

“Is it a sale of operating concessions where KPA is a landlord while terminal operations are done by its tenants or an outright sale,” asked Mwanaisha Kadenge, a maritime consultant.

She said that while international terminal operators have been a success in the form of capital, managerial expertise, and market acumen, their interests are global rather than local.

“Their interests are profits rather than economic benefit of Kenyans, and those that would take up Mombasa would not be different. That is why things must be clear from the start,” she said.

On the three berths at the Port of Lamu, reports indicate that the government was also open to allow major global powers to establish military bases in Lamu just like in Djibouti.

France, the US, China, Germany, and Italy have all established military bases in Djibouti. In Lamu, the USA has a small military base at Manda.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that Ethiopia, a landlocked since 1993 when Eritrea gained independence, is also keen to acquire a port in its quest to revive its naval force.

Major multinational port operators are yet again angling for a chance to manage key services at the ports of Mombasa and Lamu after they lost out in a botched tendering process in 2015.

But the renewed plan to concession services at the two ports has, predictably, been engulfed in a storm despite President William Ruto’s attempt to explain its economic implications.

Opposition politicians led by Raila Odinga have termed the plan as a plot by Kenya Kwanza regime to rip off the country, while unionists and logistics experts say it is shrouded in secrecy. Mombasa Governor Abduswamand Nassir has vowed to scuttle the plan if Coast leaders are not involved in the process. 

Unionists and maritime experts have called for the process to start afresh to give all stakeholders a chance to give their input. Questions also linger on whether it is best to privatise, lease out or commercialise port services.

Analysts say the backlash, which has in the past led to shelving of the idea, is due to the government’s failure to involve all stakeholders or explain the idea to Kenyans..

Last month, KPA advertised for bidders from international terminal operators for the development and operations of port assets through public-private partnerships.

According to the advert, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) is seeking a private partner to develop berths 11 to 14 and container terminal 1 in Mombasa, and to run Lamu’s berth one to three.

Berths 11 to 14 are currently used for conventional or loose cargo (goods not packed in a container) but KPA wants to convert them into a container terminal- the East Container Terminal. 

Maritime trade analysts say this is because 90 per cent of cargo that passes through the Mombasa port is containerised. Proponents of the idea say it will raise capital for the projects.

They also argue that the entry of private entity removes bureaucracy, reduces the bloated workforce at KPA, and injects innovation leading to efficiency at the port.

But fears are also rife that selling off, concession, leasing, or commercialization of the ports could lead to job losses. Currently, KPA has 7,000-odd workers.

Shippers Council of Eastern Africa CEO Gilbert Langat questioned the process, saying it was being rushed without input from key stakeholders.

“The disadvantage is the interest of any private sector player who will come in is to make money. We should learn from other ports that have gone that route like Dar,” said Mr Langat.

Until this year, major services at the Dar es Salaam port were run by Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS). But after 20 years, analysts say services never improved.

“When TICTS took over services at Dar es Salaam, there were talks that it will overtake Mombasa. That was never the case as services deteriorated. We must be careful,” said Langat.

Reports indicate that TICTS contracts expired this year and the Government of Tanzania was in talks with DP World, a Dubai-based port operator, to run some operations at the port.

Job creation

Dock Workers Union General Secretary Simon Sang’ says there will be job losses at the Mombasa port if the services were leased to a private entity. Like other ports that have leased key services, Mr Sang’ says that more jobs will be created outside the port due to the efficiency of the facility, leading to investment in existing economic zones.

“Direct employment will be lost, say from the current 7,000 to 5,000 people. But indirect employment will go up, leading to revival of the city that is currently not doing well,” he said.

But critics of the union say that the officials are out to ring-fence their members'  subscriptions. The union has 5,000-odd members each contributing two percent of their basic salary.

Sang, however, says that although the idea to concession the port is under the Big 4 agenda, the 2017-2027 short-term national strategic plan, he opposed it because it was unclear.

“This idea came to light in 2021 when it was reported that the National Treasury CS had approached Dubai World to develop a special economic zone in Lamu,” said Sang.

The battle for the second container terminal started in 2014 when the government floated an international tender to concession the second container terminal.

DP World was among the 12 top world terminal operators that were shortlisted from a list of 19 that submitted their bids, according to a gazette notice dated April 10, 2015.

The firms that were shortlisted included Chinese-based China Merchant Holdings, Netherlands-based APM Terminals BV, and Dubai-based DP World Ltd.

Cosco Pacific Ltd, Bollore Logistics, Toyota, and Kamigumi Company Ltd submitted a joint bid as Group Maritim TCB, S.L, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Freight Forwarders Kenya.

However, PSA International, which had partnered with a local firm, Multiple Haulers, had the highest marks, with DP World emerging second, according to KPA reports.

But the process to sell off the 450,000-capacity terminal drew criticism from Coast politicians and the union who questioned the economic implications of selling the terminal.

The government stopped the process amid political and legal undercurrents and asked KPA to re-evaluate the technical bids afresh. KPA decided to run the facility.

According to the initial plan the terminal operator was expected to pay KPA a standing annual fee of $18.4 million (Sh1.7 billion) plus a commission based on cargo volumes.

Other sources said that one of the conditions by the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA), which funded the Sh27 billion terminal, was that it was to be run by a private firm.

Nassib Mbarak, a logistics expert in Mombasa, said the government can source money from private entities to develop the port without selling off or leasing the services.

“Why should we privatise a profit-making parastatal when there are those making losses? We privatised the one-metre railway line and look what became of it,” said Mr Mbarak.

Mbarak and Langat agreed that it was wrong for the process to start without the involvement of Coast leaders, especially the Mombasa and Lamu county governments.

“All over the world, port cities must get a share from the facility. Someone is trying to jump the ship. All stakeholders must be involved,” said Langat.

He said most marine transport experts agree that KPA should be converted into a landlord so that other services be commercialised to enhance efficiency and make it competitive.

“I was at Tangier Port in Morocco where all three terminals have been commercialised and everything is done by machines with a control room with only 15 people,” said Langat.

All three terminals of Tangier Port on the Mediterranean Sea are operated by APM Terminal, and owned by Denmark's Maersk, Germany's Eurogate, and a local firm.

Data from the World Bank shows that Tangier handled 107.8 million tonnes of cargo in 2022, a six per cent surge from 2021. Mombasa processed 35 million tonnes of cargo in 2022.

“Is it a sale of operating concessions where KPA is a landlord while terminal operations are done by its tenants or an outright sale,” asked Mwanaisha Kadenge, a maritime consultant.

She said that while international terminal operators have been a success in the form of capital, managerial expertise, and market acumen, their interests are global rather than local.

“Their interests are profits rather than economic benefit of Kenyans, and those that would take up Mombasa would not be different. That is why things must be clear from the start,” she said.

On the three berths at the Port of Lamu, reports indicate that the government was also open to allow major global powers to establish military bases in Lamu just like in Djibouti.

France, the US, China, Germany, and Italy have all established military bases in Djibouti. In Lamu, the USA has a small military base at Manda.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that Ethiopia, a landlocked since 1993 when Eritrea gained independence, is also keen to acquire a port in its quest to revive its naval force. BY Benard Sanga, The Standard

Detectives have made a breakthrough in the investigation of an international fraud case where businessmen based in India lost goods worth over Ksh267 Million, to suspected fraudsters based in Uganda, assisted by local thugs.

In a statement, this is after the complainant one Surya Parkash, the Chief Executive of Kutch Chemical Industries LTD supplied a consignment of 104 containers of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) to fictitious companies between December 12, 2022 and April 22, 2023.

Caustic soda is used as a reagent in laboratories and also as a cleansing agent.

According to the complainant who flew to Kenya from India to file his report at DCI headquarters, five companies identified as Abbey Chemicals East Africa LTD, Innospec LTD, Akoki Investment Agency LTD, CJP Chemicals LTD and UNATRAL Free Zone SMC Uganda LTD, had ordered for the consignment which was delivered through the port of Mombasa, between January 31, 2023 and May 15, 2023.

But immediately the last container was offloaded at the port, the consignees who had not paid for the shipment went under, and severed communication with the supplier.

Investigations into the fraud bringing together seasoned sleuths from DCI’s Serious Crimes Unit, officers from Ugandan police, Criminal Investigations Department and INTERPOL were immediately launched.

On Thursday, the team recovered 7,420 bags equivalent to 7 containers of the product at Liberty Internal Container Depot, a logistical company located along Bweyogere Industrial Area in Kampala, Uganda.

Efforts to recover the rest of the shipment and arrest the suspects involved are ongoing. By Christine Muchira, KBC

Uganda’s opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, is being blocked from leaving his home in what police argue is to stop him from mobilising for a march.

Wine, leader of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party, on Thursday was whisked away from the airport in Entebbe and driven away bypassing the local immigration authorities.

By Friday, he was still blocked in his home, while dozens of his supporters were arrested.

Kampala Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango told The EastAfrican that police were holding dozens of Bobi Wine supporters, arresting more and charging them in courts of law. He said the supporters will be charged with inciting violence and planning to hold an illegal procession from the airport up to Kampala, a busy 43-kilometre route.

Although Onyango could not confirm whether Bobi Wine was under house arrest or preventive arrest, he says the operations targeted to stop planned ‘One Million march’ the opposition leader supposedly plotted upon return to Uganda. Bobi had flown out last month after police banned his national rallies, accusing him of sectarian speeches.

When he landed at Entebbe on Thursday morning, police pounced on him just as he disembarked from the aircraft, they drove him out to his home, bypassing the normal immigration clearance for all passengers arriving from outside the country.

On Friday, Bobi wrote on X that he was technically not in Uganda.

Security agents have used preventive arrest over the years to block or keep leading opposition politicians from leaving home, sometimes holding them for several days.

On Bobi Wine being forced to skip the immigration desk, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson Vianney Luggya said immigration services can be rendered anywhere that is deemed necessary. He said an immigration officer could offer the services anywhere and does not necessarily have to be at the airport, adding that it was not the first time someone was picked from the airport tarmac before the immigration desk.

Immigration spokesperson Simon Mundeyi says security in such a situation takes precedence.

“We had information that his supporters were planning to overwhelm the airport security and meet him at the runway, where it would not be easy to disperse them,” he said, adding that when the situation settles, the immigration department will pick his passport and register him to have returned to the country.

He says many people sometimes are forced to bypass the immigration protocol, especially when they are very sick.

“You first save the life and come back to the procedures,” he said.

Four-time presidential candidate, Kizza Besigye was a victim of such an arrangement for several weeks after the 2016 elections in which he emerged second to President Yoweri Museveni in an election the opposition termed as fraudulent and not meeting the expected standards.

“I cannot tell when we shall stop the operation. That’s up to intelligence. If they tell us the threat has gone, we shall stop the operation,” Onyango said, confirming that between 40 and 100 people were in custody, while more were still being arrested since Thursday.

However, NUP says over 300 of their supporters are in detention.

Charles Matovu, a member of parliament for Busiro South constituency in Central Uganda, is among those who were by Friday afternoon still under detention, as the party’s legal teams tried to secure their release.

According to the police, those arrested were found with megaphone speakers, red berets, and t-shirts with writings “Kunga Uganda” loosely translated as 'mobilise Uganda', which security says was meant to rally people for a procession.

Onyango had earlier said Bobi Wine was picked up from the airport and driven straight to his home in Magere, Wakiso District, on the outskirts of Kampala city; to stop a procession that had been anticipated would paralyse travel on the 43-kilometre Kampala- Entebbe route.

“We wish to inform the public that the NUP President Hon Kyagulanyi Robert was successfully escorted by our security team from Entebbe to his home in Magere. He reached his home around 11.20 am, and is with his family and friends,” he said.

The pop star-turned-politician was bundled from the plane to a waiting vehicle at the airport by security operatives who dressed like airport staff.

At home, there was a heavy security presence around his house and in his compound. He says they manhandled his guard and blocked his party members from accessing his home, dispersing many of them using teargas.

Bobi Wine was returning from a tour that took him to several countries including Canada and South Africa.

“Our president was picked up by regime operatives as soon as he landed at the airport,” David Lewis Rubongoya, the secretary general of NUP, tweeted.

Uganda Police had warned supporters not to line up and form processions to receive him after plans had been announced in what they called a One million match, to receive their leader.

“The organisers of this welcome back event are advised to stop mobilising and the public are also advised not to participate in an illegality. Security agencies will make sure that no one engages in illegal procession and whoever will be arrested will be taken to courts of law,” said Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, a day before Bobi Wine returned.

“Such a procession has the potential to disrupt the normal flow of traffic, the movement of individuals, and the operations of businesses along the Entebbe–Gayaza highway. It may also attract criminal activities, posing risks to bystanders, motorists, passengers, and businesses through acts of theft or other criminal activities,” he added.

However, his supporters had insisted they would organise the procession despite police warning.

“Welcoming our president is an initiative of the people and as party leaders, we are in total support of the arrangements," deputy party spokesperson Waiswa Mafumbiro said.

The police had last month banned rallies arranged by the NUP leader after he was accused of making statements that were deemed to have been sectarian as well as threatening the peace and unity of Ugandans. While on one of the tours in Luweero, Central Uganda, Bobi Wine told his listeners at a rally to take note of the injustices and the tribes that are behind them with a view of seeking revenge.

Although Bobi Wine, who contested against President Yoweri Museveni in the 2021 general elections, coming second with 35 percent of the 59 percent Ugandans who voted, had insisted he would go ahead with the rallies and nationwide tours, the first after he lost elections, he quickly flew abroad. - NELSON NATURINDA, The EastAfrican