Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir is pushing for amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act to compel shipping lines to cede part of their business to locals.
Kenya relies on about 22 foreign shipping lines to move its imports and exports since there is no locally owned merchant shipping line.
The petition in Parliament seeks to change all that and lock in the services to locals as initially envisaged under the annulled law.
Kenya looks set to open a new battlefront with foreign shipping lines as Parliament considers changes that could squeeze their business and compel them to pay higher salaries.
Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir is pushing for amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act to compel shipping lines to cede part of their business to locals even as they are required to raise workers’ pay.
The move comes two years after foreign shipping lines won a legal battle with High Court judge George Odunga ruling that rendered section 16(1) of the Merchant Shipping Act, 2009, ineffective.
The section states: “No owner of a ship or person providing the service of a shipping line shall, either directly or indirectly, provide in the maritime industry the service of crewing agencies, pilotage, clearing and forwarding agent, port facility operator, shipping agent, terminal operator, container freight station, quay side service provider, general ship contractor, haulage, empty container depots or ship chandler.”
Kenya relies on about 22 foreign shipping lines to move its imports and exports since there is no locally owned merchant shipping line. Sea transport moves up to 80 per cent of Kenya’s international trade which hit Sh2.16 trillion by end of 2015.
The law was enacted in an effort to shake off foreigners’ grip on Kenya’s shipping industry. In 2015, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) tried to invoke the controversial section to lock foreign shipping lines from bidding to run Mombasa port’s second container terminal. Justice Odunga made the ruling after APM Terminals, which has links with Maersk shipping line, moved to court to challenge KPA’s bid to block it from the tender to operate a container terminal.
The ruling handed back port-based logistics service provision among them quayside services, general ship contracting, haulage, ship brokerage, cargo consolidation, ship repairs and maritime training to multinationals.
The petition in Parliament seeks to change all that and lock in the services to locals as initially envisaged under the annulled law.
Mr Nassir said shipping lines were using the ruling to set up businesses that should be done by Kenyans, adding that this has resulted to dominance by foreign firms and adversely affected the employment of locals.
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He alleged that a scheme by foreign shipping lines to have section 16(1) of the Act deleted all together, an attempt that he vowed to mobilise legislators against. “I am aware that a certain MP is being used by shipping lines in efforts to expunge this section of the law but we will oppose it. If big companies own container depots and clearing agencies, which jobs are our people going to do? We cannot allow this to happen,” he told the Business Daily by phone.
In the petition dated February 20 2017, the MP also says shipping companies exploit Kenyans by paying them peanuts and wants amendments to the Act which will set remuneration by shipping companies.
“The Bill will address the need to provide a better legislative mechanism for employment of more Kenyans in preference to foreigners working in ship,” the petition reads.
He notes that job contracts are unfair to workers, resulting in poor pay.
Mr Nassir also wants companies wishing to hire expatriates to first offer the position to Kenyans.
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