​REMARKS  BY THE MANAGING DIRECTOR- MRS. CATHERINE MTURI-WAIRI DURING THE KPA  CORPORATE GOLF TOURNAMENT AT MACHAKOS GOLF CLUB ON 17TH FEBRUARY 2018

  • The Chairman Machakos Golf Club,  Mr Jackson Kitulu,
  • KPA Board of Directors and Management present,
  • The Vice Captain, -  Mr Josephat Mboya,
  • Distinguished Golfers,
  • Stakeholders,
  • Ladies and Gentlemen,

     Good Evening,

    I welcome you all to this year's first KPA Corporate Golf tournament.  Living to our promise last year, I am glad to announce that we have now diarized Machakos golf as one of our corporate annual events.

    Sponsoring golf gives us a chance to interact and share light sporting and business moments with our stakeholders away from our operational areas. Much as stakeholder engagement is one thing we do daily, setting time for sports with our business partners gives us more democratic space to explore and share  some of the pertinent business matters.

     
    KPA identifies strongly with sports. It may be in your interest to know that, besides handling containers,  we are also well known for other sports such as  soccer, volleyball, swimming and basketball, some up to international level.  Although we have not made much headway in golf as a sport, I am encouraged to witness more KPA staff  and directors becoming active golfers. Just like we have continued to dominate in other sporting activites, I am confident that we will also be boasting of golf professionals sooner than later.

     
    Ladies and gentlemen,

    Although our attention is now all switched on goal 19, I am sure it is in our mutual interest to share, albeit briefly, how the Mombasa Port is faring in terms of facilitating trade in this region.

     
    Performance.

    Despite the prolonged electioneering period last year which many feared could interfere with regional trade, port productivity and overall performance continued to grow. 

     
    Last year, the Port of Mombasa recorded a significant increase in total cargo throughput with a growth of 10.9 percent from 27.36 million tons in 2016 to 30.35 million tons in 2017.  

    Container traffic registered an impressive performance with an increase of 98,586 TEUs or 9.0 percent from 1.091 million TEUs handled in 2016 to 1.190 million TEUs in 2017. On the other hand, Transit cargo had a notable increase in performance from 7.75 million tons in 2016 to 8.64 million tons in 2017, posting a growth of 11.5 percent.

    Imports grew substantially by 10.8 percent to record 25.60 million tons of cargo in 2017 up from 23.12 million tons in 2016. Exports recorded traffic of 3.79 million tons in 2017 against 3.66 million tons in 2016, a growth of 3.6 percent. The marginal increase was mainly supported by Coffee which increased by 33.3 percent and Tea by 4.1 percent.

     For cargo destined to our transit markets, the port handled a total of 8,636,605 tons of transit cargo against 7,748,537 tons registered in the same period in 2016, representing an increase of 888,068 tons or 11.5 percent.

 

 Transshipment traffic continued to perform well posting 873,989 tons of cargo compared to 588,524 tons realized in the corresponding period of 2016, representing an increase of 285,465 tons or 48.5 percent. 

 Ladies and gentlemen, the improved performance we continue to witness is attributed to:

  • Continued investment in modern infrastructure
  • Acquisition of modern equipment
  • Automation of port services.
  • Continued and sustained stakeholder engagement
  •  Focused capacity building through staff training

     
    Nairobi ICD

    As you are aware, the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) commenced freight services to the Inland Container Depot Nairobi (ICDN). We have started seeing an increase in the usage of standard Gauge rail services. Last week, Containers delivered up-country by rail recorded 671 TEUs registering an increase of 233 TEUs compared to the previous week.

    This development is aimed at bringing services closer to the customer and also decongesting the roads.

     
    Ongoing developments

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    To keep abreast  with industry trends and sustain our service levels to international standards, we have initiatied programmes aimed at enhancing efficiency and increasing capacity ahead of demand. And therefore:
  • Construction of Phase II of the 2nd Container Terminal is expected to commence in June 2018. The project will bring on board an additional capacity of 450,000 TEUs.
  • Relocation of the current Kipevu Oil Terminal (KOT) shall commence by June 2018. The facility will handle four vessels at a time and will have underwater pipelines to link with the KPC storage tanks.
  • We are also working on rehabilitation and redevelopment of berths 11-14. Towards this end, mobilization of project financing is at an advanced stage. Upon completion, the berths will provide a total capacity of 900,000 TEUs.
  • The development of the Cruise facilities at berth Nos. 1 and 2 into a modern cruise ship terminal. The facility, to be  ready by end of the year,  will spur growth in Cruise Tourism.
  • Construction of Lamu Port is at  42 percent complete with the first berth expected to be completed by end of this year.
  • Plans are also underway to develop Kisumu Port and other inland waterways into modern commercial lake port to serve the growing regional trade in line with the East Africa Community integration plans.

     
    Ladies and gentlemen,

    Before I take my seat, allow me to congratulate the winners and also all those of you who participated in the tournament.

    To Machakos Golf Club, we thank you for being a good host. It is my hope that the participants had a good time at the course and would be be looking forward to 2019.

    Thank you and God bless you all.