Maritime agency cites NIS warning in row with firm

The Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) has said it received a brief from the National Intelligence Service indicating that a shipping agency had been vetted in 2015 and an adverse report returned.

The KMA said it received the confidential brief prior the receipt of an application by Zam Zam Shipping Ltd for renewal of its licence.

The shipping agency has sued the KMA and its board of directors over a decision to defer renewal of shipping agency annual licence for 2017. It wants the court to quash the decision.

Through an affidavit of its company secretary Jane Otieno, the KMA said following the brief, there was a need to carry out more detailed review of the agency’s application.

Ms Otieno said via a letter dated February 20, the KMA wrote to NIS director-general informing him of the application and requested for an update raised on intelligence reports on the shipping agency.

“The respondent has not yet received a response to its letter to the director-general NIS,” she said, adding that it is only after the completion of the vetting process that a decision on the application for renewal of the licence by the shipping agency can be made.

Ms Otieno said the KMA could only approve payment of the licence renewal application fees after a satisfactory completion of the vetting.

“The payment of the licence renewal application fees by the applicant without approval from the respondent was not procedural,” she said.

Ms Otieno said the shipping agency operations had failed to disclose that manager Ahmed Mohamed Osman had been charged with the offence of trafficking narcotic drugs.