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Kenya Ferry charges for all motorists to go up by 50 per cent

FERRY SCRAMBLE; Hundreds of Commuters from South Coast of Mombasa cross the likoni channel on a board a ferry to the Mombasa island ferry ramp on Friday,015th March,2015 morning. This after the commuters and Motorists were delayed for several hours in both sides after three ferries developed mechanical problems.PHOTO BY MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD

Motorists crossing the Likoni Channel may soon pay 50 per cent more if the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) has its way.

KFS said that the toll charges, which were last reviewed in 2012, should be increased further to raise revenue to ease the financial constraints facing the parastatal.

“The toll charges paid by motorists are Government controlled. The objective of this meeting is therefore to present our proposed new rates to stakeholders and seek their views and approval in the light of the financial challenges currently faced by the company,” said KFS Managing Director Musa Hassan.

He said that the charges would be increased by between 15 and 50 per cent but did not specify the type of vehicles that would be hardest hit.

KFS currently ferries over 300,000 pedestrians and more than 6,000 vehicles daily across the channel. The firm projects the passenger number to hit 500,000 in the next three years if the current trend continues.

Mr Musa said KFS would implement the proposed charges once they are ratified by stakeholders in a meeting that was to be held yesterday afternoon at the firm’s office in Mombasa. By the time of going to Press, the resolutions of the said meeting had not been made public.

 operation cost

But speaking ahead of the forum yesterday, Musa said the decision to review the rates was informed by the rising cost of operation and surge in passenger numbers.

In the current rates chart, a saloon car of between 3.5m and 4.5m is charged Sh90, one that is 6m is charged Sh120, Land Rover Sh200, trucks of 5m attract Sh280 while between 16m and 16.9m pay Sh1,250.

An empty trailers attracts Sh5,550, a loaded trailer Sh7,950, petrol car Sh1,700, empty petrol tanker Sh1,900, petrol trailer Sh5,550, abnormal load Sh15,950, minibus Sh450, bus Sh880 while a handcart and a motorcycle are charged Sh40 each.

The five ferries operating on the Likoni channel transport between 5,000 and 6,000 vehicles a day and 7,000 vehicles daily during holidays.

Last year, the company crossed around 108 million passengers and close to two million motorists from the island to mainland and vice versa.

 

In 1969, the then President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta decreed that pedestrians travel free of charge because ferry services were essential facilities but there has been discussion on whether passengers should be charged.

“Pedestrians will continue to enjoy free ferry services as the basis of an annual renewable contract under which the Government pays for about 300,000 people who are ferried across the channel daily,” said Musa.

In May this year, KFS announced plans to set up an express cable car service at Likoni crossing that will link Mombasa Island and the south mainland due to surging passenger numbers.

The Sh3.6 billion ($41 million) Likoni Cable Car project is expected to reduce logjams and at the same time boost tourism in the south Coast by providing a complimentary pedestrian crossing for Likoni channel.

KFS is also in the process of procuring two new ferries and it has already awarded the tender to a Turkish shipyard company, Ozata Tersanececik Ltd, for design, build and commission. The firm is expected to deliver the new ferries by mid next year.

The two ferries will replace MV Mvita and MV Pwani, which were decommissioned in 2012.

The decommissioning has left KFS with five vessels in operation which are MV Nyayo, MV Kilindini, MV Harambee, MV Likoni and MV Kwale.

KFS was established in 1989 by the Government and has played a pivotal role in linking the island to the mainland south of Mombasa.

Unlike the northern side of Mombasa that is linked by bridges at Nyali, Mtwapa, Kilifi and Sabaki the south coast depends solely on the ferries.

In May, several passengers were forced to jump into the ocean and swim to the shore after a ferry they were using stalled. No deaths were reported in the frightening experience, which some passengers described as the worst mishap at Likoni Channel since the 1994 ferry disaster. The ferry, MV Kwale, with about 1,000 passengers drifted for over a kilometre before it hit a coral reef.