Funding delays Kenya’s first fishing port in Mombasa
The National Treasury building in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Funding delays have affected the completion and equipping of the Liwatoni Fisheries Project in Mombasa County, which is expected to be Kenya’s first fishing port.
The project is yet to receive Sh323 million needed to complete and buy key facilities for storing and processing fish at the facility.
The Kenya Fishing Industries Corporation chairman Mikah Nyaberi said the project is now 46 percent complete but it will need timely disbursement to meet completion deadline.
Speaking at the facility when the parliamentary departmental committee on Blue Economy, Water and Irrigation chaired by Marakwet East MP David Bowen visited last week, Mr Nyaberi said the the project will be delivered on time.
“All equipment has been manufactured. We are expecting to visit a manufacturing company to certify them before transporting them to the factory upon payment. In February, President William Ruto gave us a deadline and we hope to deliver the project in six months,” said the chairman.
Mr Bowen said they will push for the disbursement of funds in the next two weeks so as to ensure the project, expected to revolutionise the fishing industry, is completed.
“We are satisfied with the project despite a number of challenges the contractor is facing, including delay in disbursement of funds. As a committee we shall go back to Parliament and demand funds allocated in the supplementary budget be paid out by the National Treasury,” said Mr Bowen.
The complex and jetty were gazetted as the first fishing port in the country once completed will be the main fish handling facility and all fishing vessels operating in Kenya’s territorial waters will be required to land there.
