The National Assembly has rejected a proposal by the government to give the Transport Cabinet Secretary sweeping powers to determine who runs the lucrative shipping business at Terminal 2 at the port of Mombasa.
The plan to ensure that the CS awards the business without tendering was contained in the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) Bill 2019.
The Omnibus bill sought to amend the Merchant Shipping Act of 2009.
But the MPs ganged up to shoot down the plan as the bill came up for consideration last week.
The Transport, Public Works and Housing Committee chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing, in its report, warned against the plan saying it was a recipe for chaos.
The Kenya National Shipping Line (KNSL) that is owned by the government and foreign companies on a 53:47 per cent shareholding basis, operates the berth that generates about Sh10 billion a year.
“The proposed amendments gives draconian powers to the CS to exempt any government entity or enterprise from the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act and thus, the said powers may be abused,” the Committee said in its report to the House.
Mr Pkosing’s Committee noted that the nature of the amendments was substantive and ought not to have come through the miscellaneous amendment bill, whose purpose is to make minor changes to existing statutes.
“I will bring amendments to make the shipping operations an exclusive venture by the Kenyan government. We cannot keep quiet and allow some private individuals to control the shipping line,” Mr Pkosing said.
Currently Kenya has two terminals at the port of Mombasa.
Because of the Kenya Ports Authority’s (KPA) inability to operate the terminals due to high maintenance costs among other issues, the government allowed KPA to operate Terminal 1 with KNSL taking charge of Terminal 2.
Coast MPs led by Abdulswamad Sharif (Mvita) rallied their colleagues to shoot down the proposal warning that the investments by the government in the blue economy would mean nothing if it does not take control of the operations.
Mr Sharif noted that the only shipping line running the terminal should be fully owned by Kenyans.
“What we are against is the powers by the CS to exempt government from the operations of managing a shipping terminal. It’s like selling the rights to run our own affairs to foreigners,” Mr Sharif, who also chairs the Public Investments Committee (PIC), said.
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