THE PORT OF MOMBASA can trace its history back many centuries to a time when dhows called at the Old Port on the north side of Mombasa Island.

The Old Port is next to Fort Jesus,which was built by the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama. This was during the famous spice trade between the Arabian Gulf,the east coast of Africa,the Indian subcontinent and the Far East when navigators were looking for a new route to the Far East.

In the 18th and 19th centuries East Africa was colonised by various nations including Great Britain and Germany. In the 1890s the region was partitioned,with Tanzania coming under German control and Kenya and Uganda being controlled by Britain.
Trade began to boom and in 1895 work began on a railway from Mombasa to Kampala in Uganda to open up the hinterland for coffee,tea,ivory and skins. As trade expanded and the interior of East Africa was opened up by the new railway,so demand grew for a fully fledged seaport with a spacious deepwater harbour. A new jetty was needed to handle larger ships bringing construction materials for the new railway.

As a result,a new port was created at Kilindini Harbour in 1896 with the building of a jetty at Kilindini on the west side of the island which was used mainly for transferring goods between seagoing vessels and the Kenya to Uganda railway. Later,three more jetties were built to handle railborne goods and other import and export traffic.

In 1907 the first of two lighterage wharves was built on the south side of Ras Kilindini with four lighter handling points. Development of the modern Port of Mombasa began in earnest in 1926 with the completion of two deepwater berths supported by transit sheds at Kilindini Harbour. Three more berths,also supported by sheds,were completed in 1931 and the Shimanzi Oil Terminal entered service in the same year.

Two more berths were built in 1944 to cope with a sudden increase in shipping and traffic as a result of Britain’s wartime naval requirements in the Indian Ocean. Berth No 6 was omitted due to unfavourable foundation conditions. A second lighterage wharf was built in 1954 with eight head jetties. Two deepwater berths – also on the island – were added in 1955 and 1958.As the level of cargo and ship traffic continued to rise,the port was obliged to expand to the mainland at Kipevu where berths Nos 11 and 12 were completed in 1961.The Kipevu Oil Terminal was built in 1963 to serve the East Africa Oil Refinery. Two more berths were completed in 1967.

With the coming of the container age,two deepwater berths entered service in 1975 which had been designed for subsequent conversion into container handling berths. The same year marked the beginning of the container trade in Mombasa,with 1,385 TEU handled in 1975.

As container traffic continued to grow,berths Nos 16 and 17 were converted into container handling berths and a third berth,purposely designed for container handling,was added in 1980.

The rapid increase in container traffic through Mombasa prompted the port authority to extend the container handling operation upcountry and in the years that followed it set up two inland container depots at Embakasi in Nairobi (which opened in 1984) and at Kisumu (1994).

Kenya gained independence in 1963 while her East African neighbours,Tanzania and Uganda,became independent in 1961 and 1962 respectively. In 1967 the three countries joined forces to set up the East African Community (EAC). They also created a new authority,the East African Harbour Corporation,to run the principal ports of Dar es Salaam,Mombasa and the oil port of Tanga. There was positive development under this new organisation,but with the collapse of the EAC in 1977,the running of Kenya’s ports was taken over by the national government,which established the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in 1978.KPA was enlarged in 1986 when it merged with the autonomous state organisation Kenya Cargo Handling Ltd to form a single body responsible for all aspects of national port development and operations.