Sh100m set aside to revamp transport on Lake Victoria
Kisumu is well-positioned to connect and trade with countries like Uganda Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. FILE
The government has set aside Sh100 million to revamp Lake Victoria transport, Kenya Ports Authority chairman Danson Mungatana has said.
While visiting Kisumu Thursday, he said the authority was concerned about the decline in employment due to the poor state of the ports.
“We want to make the region active once more to boost revenue and create employment,” said Mr Mungatana.
The funds will be used to carry out a feasibility study with an aim of boosting the sector that was buoyant till 1994.
Mr Mungatana said thorough research will be done to help identify more ports where ferries can dock. Currently, Kenya’s side of the lake has Kisumu, Luanda Kotieno and Homa Bay piers.
Decline
He said the genesis of the decline in business was the closure of the Kenya Railways Authority dock in November 2011.
Kisumu governor Jack Ranguma said: “My government has made a lot of deals to improve the dilapidated state of the lake piers, but the missing link is the railway transport to connect Mombasa port to Kisumu so that the goods can be ferried to other East African countries.”
Mr Ranguma said that Kisumu is well-positioned to connect and trade with countries like Uganda Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
“But we cannot do that while the railway system is not working; I would like to therefore request that the Rift Valley Railway (Mau summit- Kisumu) be revived,” he said
Mr Ranguma requested the relocation of the Kisumu Port to the spacious Kibos according to the town’s new plan.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
