KFS to know whether it can launch Sh2bn ferry next week
Two ferries cross the Likoni Channel as MT Theresa Arctic (in the background), an oil tanker, enters the Port of Mombasa on July 12, 2017. PHOTO | WACHIRA MWANGI | NMG
Justice Erick Ogola will deliver his ruling on Tuesday in a case filed by a consultant hired by KFS to carry out supervision and inspection of the construction of the two vessels.
The petitioner said the ferry was built using substandard mediocre materials” amid serious defects he claimed were never addressed his client’s consultants.
Kenya Ferry Services opposed the application saying safety issues and other concerns raised by Bonriz Insurance Marine Surveyors were properly addressed.
Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) will know next week whether it will be able to launch one of the two new ferries worth Sh2 billion that it is procuring from Turkey.
Justice Erick Ogola will deliver his ruling on Tuesday in a case filed by a consultant hired by KFS to carry out supervision and inspection of the construction of the two vessels.
The matter came up for inter-partes hearing today with Bonriz Insurance Marine Surveyors, through lawyer Gikandi Ngibuini, claiming that Mv Jambo, which is in the high seas, was built using “substandard mediocre materials” amid serious defects he claimed were never addressed his client’s consultants.
Mr Gikandi submitted that the haste by KFS to launch the ferry is irrelevant compared to the serious issues tendered in court by the petitioner that the vessels “are of mass deaths”.
“For the reason not given up to now, the respondent entered into agreement with the ship builder, Ozata Tersanecilik San Ve Tic Ltd STI, on June 2015 but the construction work commenced November 2016.
"My client was then contracted March this year. I am submitting that it is at this moment that the respondent has seen the urgency to have ferries at Likoni Channel. That MV Jambo has become issue of grieve urgency,” paused Mr Gikandi.
Mr Gikandi further told Judge Ogola that despite being fully aware of the expiry of the lifespan of the current ferries built 1990, KFS did not expedite procurement process of the new ferries, only to purport before him that there is urgent need to commission MV Jambo.
Mr Gikandi indicated that the court has the constitutional discretion to safeguard the right of ferry users to life, which he argued is paramount to the urgency to ease traffic of motorists and commuters crossing the busy channel.
He asked the court to grant his client prayers seeking an order restraining KFS from carrying out the purchase of the new ferries until safety issues are adequately addressed.
On its part, Kenya Ferry Services opposed the application saying safety issues and other concerns raised by Bonriz Insurance Marine Surveyors were properly addressed.
Lawyers Nani Mungai, Cecil Miller and Ms Ann Kaguri told Justice Ogola that that safety standard concerns were adequately addressed in meetings between Bonriz Insurance Marine Surveyors’ representative, OzataTersanecilik San Ve Tic Ltd STI, Bureau Veritas Marine Division, quality control agent and Volvo Penta, manufactures of engines.
“In meeting held between June 6 and July 11 all those issues were addressed. In the meeting of June 6, the petitioner’ representative, Mr T. Ersen Guresen, confirmed the safety issues were addressed.
He added: “He had noted several issues of quality but that all the issues were minor and had been communicated to Ozaka for correction.”
Kenya Ferry Services alleged that it terminated Bonriz Insurance Marine Surveyors’s supervision and inspection consulting services for the new ferries because of use of dubious consultants, a claim Mr Gikandi rebutted.
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