Kisumu port banks on EAC integration to revive operations

For Kisumu port, the promise of big business as hub of East African Community (EAC) will always be alive. And so its long term growth is intricately intertwined with ongoing regional economic integration.

So far, the road leading to Kisumu port is being rebuilt in preparation for the standard gauge railway (SGR) – which is expected to extend to the lakeside town, linking it with Kampala, Kigali and eventually, Bujumbura and Juba.

The main railway line which passes through Eldoret, is set to branch off to Kisumu at the second phase of its construction linking it to the rest of the regional markets by 2018.

The railways terminal in Kisumu that connects Kenya to its neighbours Uganda and Tanzania, has been underutilised since 2011 after Rift Valley Railways (RVR) stopped its cargo trains from plying the route.

President Uhuru Kenyatta told local leaders when he visited Kisumu in August that the port would be revived in the wake of EAC integration through under Northern Corridor infrastructure projects.

Port manager Mwalimu Disi says the ongoing projects are just a scratch on the surface of the efforts to revitalise operations at the facility.

Negotiations between Kenya Railways, RVR, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and counties seeking to use the facility are currently underway, he says.

Mr Disi says more traders are now moving goods through Lake Victoria to Uganda than during the same period last year.

“We have exceeded the 30 per cent utilisation of the port that we reported last year. More companies are targeting the port to move their bulky goods to Uganda, Mwanza and back,” he says.

The latest entrant is Bidco Oil, which transports fertiliser from Kenya to its palm tree farms in Uganda. The refined edible palm oil is shipped backed through Kisumu for sale in Kenya.

The Rift Valley Railways has also reconnected the railway lines that were cut by the road contractors who were expanding the Mau Summit-Kisian road.

When the lines were cut, western Kenya politicians cried foul and accused the government of locking Kisumu out of the rail network, especially when it was evident that the port was wasting away.

However, the railway lines have been reconnected and maintenance of the facilities at the premises is regular — another pointer that trade is likely to flow through the region again.

Chinese contractors working on the SGR project are in the final phases of feasibility studies on the viability of the Kisumu railway line.

“The study is now looking at the cost effectiveness of the Kisumu route compared to Malaba,” a source, who requested not to be named because the development is yet to be made public, told the Business Daily.

The source said the Chinese contractors are mulling over the cost of building the Kisumu railway line through Narok.

Experts say it is cheaper to take the Narok plains route than through the hills and valleys of the North Rift.

On the latest development, Mr Disi says: “Of course, the SGR if built to this end will reduce the cost of moving goods to northern Tanzania and Uganda by a great margin. We want Kisumu to be like Mwanza where business is vibrant because of the cargo and passenger exchanges that take place there.”

The Kenya National Shipping Line, in minutes of a meeting to discuss the future of the port, has already been mandated to design the revival bid under a private public partnership initiative.

“The first meeting was held in March this year with a follow-up expected this month or later before the end of the year. Furthermore, the Kenya Ports Authority deal on transfer of management of ports from Kenya Railways is also at an advanced level,” Mr Disi said.

With the expected partnership agreements as well as the transfer of port management to KPA, construction of cargo handling facilities is set to start in earnest, the Kisumu port manager said.

The opening of Mbita causeway at the farthest end of the Winam gulf is also expected to boost economic activities in the Lake Victoria region. Work on the causeway, which is being converted into a steel bridge that allows currents to flow from the deep end of the lake, is almost complete.

Mr Aba Eban, Kisumu Business Association secretary, says the ongoing projects are long overdue.

“The port is yet to recover from the problems that were caused by the noxious hyacinth weed. It is good that savvy investors can now take up the challenge and boost trade not just between Kenya and Tanzania but also within the interconnecting piers on the Kenyan side of the lake,” said Mr Eban.

“Wholesalers and those who deal in bulky hardware materials need an alternative other than rely on the road whose costs are debilitating,” he said.

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