In light of the launch of the SGR doom Sayers have been on the prowl how bus and freight companies will be rendered jobless.

Allow me to delve into it in my small way and try to demystify the effects. I will focus on freight while I will tackle passenger side on another day.

First, we need to go back into history. When KPA was considered efficient which was mainly in the 80’s and early 90’s our port handled between 250,000 and 500,000 containers.

In those days, the railway worked and container evacuation was fine but with time Kenya Railways went from bad to worse. Containers were getting piled at the port and countries like Uganda and Rwanda which depend wholly on Mombasa felt the pinch.

To compound the mess and inefficiency in evacuating containers by Kenya Railways, we suffered El-nino in 1998 which virtually destroyed our road network. The only way to evacuate cargo was negatively affected.

Between 1999 and 2002 the country was more focused in transitioning from the rule of Daniel Arap Moi and KANU regime where little real work was being done. When Kibaki & NARC took over in 2002 they inherited one fine mess at the port. Container Freight Stations commonly referred to as CFS were born.

Please note we already had Inland Container Deports ICD in Nairobi then later Kisumu and Eldoret.  With lack of speedy evacuation of cargo those ICD’s were rendered useless hence external storage in Mombasa had to found and it had to be found very fast hence CFS’s were born.

From my study, I found 15 or so CFS’s operate on and around the port of Mombasa.

Now are CFS’s the efficient way to manage a port? Personally, I don’t think so and the experts also know that pretty well. CFS’s were meant to be stop gap solution to help de-congest the port of Mombasa. No other serious port will have CFS’s surrounding it. Containers are meant to be cleared as fast as possible and off they start their journey into the hinterland.

Quicker movement of cargo means business people in Uganda, Rwanda, now South Sudan, Eastern Congo and even Nairobi would be happy with faster evacuation and cheaper rates.

From the foregoing, as long as Rift Valley Railways was inefficient then CFS’s would flourish. Please note the same CFS’s ended up surrounding the port as opposed to finding a home in the greater Mombasa like in Mazerras and Mariakani. We have several CFS’s along Kibarani and Makupa causeway which is the biggest source of the traffic gridlock because they were not meant to be there in the first place.

If we don’t style up then Uganda and Rwanda will simply opt for Tanzania ports. We want Mombasa to handle 2 million or 3 million containers up from 1 million hence container evacuation is key hence the entry of SGR under Vision 2030.

Reality and allow me to be brutal, CFS’s will finally scale down. Folks the hue and cry is more to do with the survival of CFS’s as opposed to the port itself. Since you now understand how they came up, I really don’t see how they will continue to flourish under the SGR.

Let alone Naivasha, Ugandans and Rwanda nationals will now opt to pick their cargo in Nairobi and hit the southern bypass, they are the customers. With Tanzania trying hard to woo them we cannot afford to sit pretty for even a second.

With fewer container freight stations it will now help Mombasa to de-congest and investors will get attracted. Attractive city will attract more tourists and other industries and Mombasa will find an even more sustainable source of employment.  What the CFS operators should be doing is to come together and form a consortium to run and manage a berth at the port. They do it in Durban which is 3 times busier and triple the number of berths. While we boast of 21 Durban has over 60.

Clearing firms saw it coming, CFS owners saw it coming so it is high time we got honest with ourselves and embrace the SGR while we seek alternatives and accept that the cheese has moved. Truck owners should seriously consider leasing the wagons on the SGR and give importers a one stop solution from Nairobi onwards to other parts of the region. For truck owners, you now have an opportunity to pick cargo from Nairobi and take it further inland.

The fact is that there is plenty for all if only we embraced an abundance mentality. Truth be said, the complete containerization of Mombasa and crowding of the only entry to our city has not endeared the Container stations to the rest of Mombasa residents. We want the port to do well, we want transporters   to thrive but we also want sanity.

Change whose time has come cannot be stopped, any businessman will opt for the SGR as opposed to using a truck. I will not even touch on the benefits of de-congesting of Mombasa Nairobi highway.

If I did not accurately capture an issue correctly please feel free to point it out.

As always, I choose to remain an optimist.

Mohammed Hersi

Chairman

Kenya Coast Tourism Association