A hospital ship’s journey from England to Kisumu

The death of the Kisumu railway line recently came to haunt movers of a ship that was destined for Mwanza port in Tanzania through Lake Victoria.

The ship that created a rare spectacle on its way to Kisumu, notably when it reached Nyeri town, had to be hauled by road despite its bulkiness due to dilapidated railway infrastructure in the city. Kisumu has never seen a train at the lakeside railway station since 2010.

The freighters that hauled the 160-tonne ship from Mombasa told the Business Daily that their 28-day journey was eventful.

They said they did not have a choice other than transport the ship by the road because it was the shortest route to the Tanzanian town from Mombasa port.

They described the journey as full of fun and drew comparison with colonial administrators who used the same route during the building of the Mombasa-Kisumu railway line.

The ship, actually a hospital on the move, had to be dismantled to its lowest deck to evade obstructions posed by more than 300 low-hanging high-voltage electric cables on the Kenyan highways.

Services

It will be used to deliver health services to communities living along the shores of Lake Victoria that cannot travel overseas for specialist care of eye ailments, among other medical procedures.

At times, the freighters said, they were forced to stop for hours to have a bridge cleared for the 25-metre-long ship to pass.

The United Kingdom-based Wood Group PSN, a subsidiary of Wood Group that deals in oil and gas infrastructure maintenance was contracted to deliver the ship to Lake Victoria.

James McDaid, Wood Group operations and maintenance manager for Africa, says the ship followed its predecessors MV Uhuru and Nyanza Express, only that the two were easily delivered to the region in dismantled parts stuffed in containers using the railway to a facility in Kisumu formerly known as Port Florence.

“We started the journey in Scotland in May. The experience in Kenya was different since we had to use the road. All the same, it was an awesome experience,” he said.

Before docking at the Mombasa port, the ship navigated the Atlantic Ocean as a complete vessel through the Dar-es-Salaam port.

Mr McDaid says the ship, which will be managed by Vinetrust Corporations for missionary work, made stops in England for three weeks due to cold weather.

“It then set off for Angola, stopping briefly before the voyage to Cape Town, South Africa. All these stops consumed our time. We even had two stops for a change of trailers,” he says.

At Mombasa port, the movers said they were forced to dismantle its two upper decks before loading the lower 5.5 metre-high deck onto a trailer. The total height of the ship is nine metres and is projected to serve for the next 50 years.

The trailer traversed more than 1,000 kilometres on the Mombasa-Kisumu highway via Nairobi’s Southern by-pass.

“We had to engage officials of Kenya Power to lift slackened cables on our path, at times forcing the consumers in towns where cables cross the road to go without power for some minutes,” he said.

The ship is one of three that were donated to help communities by Queen Elizabeth II in January 2003 to mark 50 years since she ascended to the throne.

The other two vessels, Amazon Hope I and II, which were first donated in 2003, are involved in community health work on the Amazon River.

“This one, christened Jubilee Hope will provide ophthalmic services in Mwanza port,” Mr McDaid said.

According to his team of five engineers, poor communities stand to gain despite the challenges they experienced when transporting the boat to Kisumu.

“The route was studied prior to the haul. We identified the power lines and came prepared to deal with these challenges,” Mr McDaid said.

He said they were received warmly by the authorities who handed them over to a marine consultancy firm to facilitate offloading the ship. After rebuilding the vessel, they will hand it over to the crew that will operate it.

When the Business Daily visited the ship last week, the managers said the reconstruction was at 60 per cent. “The team that received us here did a remarkable job, the facilities are good and one would wonder why Lake Victoria [transport] is not active,” the team leader of the British team told the Business Daily.

Maritime consultant Amin Vipul said the event to receive the ship at the Kisumu port was significant to the region in terms of its preparedness to revamp lake transport.

Mr Vipul said the port has good facilities despite being idle over the years. He added that Kisumu remains the shortest route to the landlocked countries in the region and should not be neglected.

“We can do a lot on this lake owing to the short distance from Mombasa to Mwanza, Bukoba and Kampala via Jinja. Road transport remains very expensive, especially for trade within the Lake Victoria port network in the EAC trading bloc,” said Mr Vipul.

He noted that Kenya still stands a better chance to revamp its railway networks to pass through Kisumu owing to its strategic location as a gateway to the EAC common markets.

“An active Kisumu port will drastically reduce the cost of transport compared to the current road delivery systems through the border points of Malaba and Busia,” said Mr Vipul.

He said road transport is more expensive than railways because it easily degraded and maintenance is costly in the long run.

For instance, Mr Vipul said, it would have been easier and cheaper to dismantle the ship and transport parts in railway wagons for assembly in Kisumu.

Kisumu’s inland port has been idle for many years after MV Uhuru stopped plying the route, rendering the once busy facility obsolete.

Save for a few medium-sized cargo liners that dock to deliver goods from Uganda and Tanzania, the port has inadequate facilities for cargo handling. It also faces the hyacinth weed threat from the Winam Gulf.

Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma says investors from South Korea, Germany and Australia have approached the county government in plans to revamp lake transport. He said the concerns on challenges in road transport, as seen when the Mwanza-bound ship was being transported to Kisumu, must be dealt with.

“We have had delays in implementation of the passenger ferry project following ongoing negotiations with Kenya Railways. We are considering a public-private partnership arrangement or have the port completely handed over to the county government,” he said.

Mr Ranguma added that counties that border Lake Victoria have also initiated trading partnerships that would see the main landing sites revived to ease transportation of people and goods.

“We have drafted a Bill to this effect. We hope the national government will consider the plight of traders who have reverted to the expensive road transport networks for lack of options.”

Kisumu port manager Mwalimu Disi said the facility receives more than 15 ships a month, which is way below its capacity. He said with more businesses expressing interest in using the port, urgent measures are required to revamp its infrastructure.

Programme

“Over the past three years, the number of major vessels docking here has risen by 60 per cent. We are looking at an upward trend with the realisation that our pier and dry docks are still serviceable.”

Jubilee Hope, which was donated last year to Vinetrust Corporations for missionary work in Tanzania, is expected to serve more than 40,000 residents of Port Mwanza. Four doctors and nurses from the UK are expected to serve the residents in an exchange programme every month.

The ship has three decks. The lower deck has two fully furnished theatres for dental surgery, ophthalmology and cleft palette correctional surgeries. These can handle up to 14 patients per day.

Below the deck is a septic tank that drains the waste from the operations onshore after docking, meaning it does not release harmful pollutants into the lake.

The middle deck comprises eight wards and a fully furnished kitchen with a complete consultation room. The upper deck is fitted with a tent to serve as a waiting bay for patients seeking treatment.

Mr McDaid said the ship would move from one location to another to serve the target communities.

“The team of doctors from the UK will work with local physicians to train them on correctional surgery skills that are lacking in Africa,” he said.

[email protected]