Parliament has directed the maritime regulator to ground all ferries which do not meet safety standards.
While ordering the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) to conduct fresh inspection of all ferries, the House said non-compliant vessels should have their certificates immediately cancelled.
“Measures should be put in place to ensure the inspection procedure has no loopholes and that the vessels are comprehensively inspected before being issued with safety certificates,” Abdulswamad Nassir, who chairs National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) said in a report to the House.
The committee specifically ordered the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) to ground MV Harambee, from which a car plunged into the Indian Ocean in October killing a woman and her daughter.
An inspection visit by the committee on the status of the ferries showed that KMA had raised 12 defects on MV Harambee as at February 2019 that include damaged prows.
“The non-functional prows which were visibly defective and submerged in water were not observed as being defective by the KMA inspector during inspection in February and March 2019,” the committee said.
“Captain Mbarak Zaunga, the head of Maritime Safety relied on the inspection report by the Port State Control Officer who had failed to raise the defect of the ferry prows,” Mr Nassir said.
The committee also revealed that Lloyds Register, an international maritime regulatory body, had withdrawn class certification for MV Nyayo, MV Harambee and MV Kilindini in 2006 but latter issued class certificates to the three vessels following inspection on their safety conducted on March 28 and 29, 2019.
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