Kenya Ferry eyes expansion to Lamu and Kisumu ports

The board of directors at the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) is eyeing expansion of its vital ferry services to cover the Lamu archipelago and Kisumu Port.

Speaking during a maiden tour of the KFS installations in Mombasa, newly appointed KFS board chairman , Mr Ramadhan Kajembe said that they were a national entity with a national mandate, hence the need to explore areas outside Mombasa.

“This is not Mombasa Ferry Services, but Kenya Ferry Services. We intend to open our services in Lamu and the Lake Victoria region so that we can have national outlook,” explained Mr Kajembe.

At the sometime, KFS has pledged that its services at the Mtongwe Channel will resume in October this year to help ease heavy traffic along the busy Likoni Channel.

Mr Kajembe who was accompanied by KFS Managing Director, Bakari Ngowa said Mtongwe operations will also resume once ongoing repairs and dry dock maintenance of all ferries is completed. The exercise will cost of Sh350 million. The ferry services across Mtongwe channel was discontinued in 2010 after breakdown of landing infrastructure and two years later, two ferries - MV Mvita and MV Pwani, which used to serve the area were decommissioned.

Mr Kajembe said the new management has resolved to improve the dire services at the Likoni channel.

Board meeting

“We did our first board meeting and discussed several issues. We agreed that we need to quickly improve services by first ensuring all ferries are repaired. We are taking seriously the concerns of users and we shall work towards improving services to their satisfaction,” added Mr Kajembe.

The fleet of ferries targeted for urgent repairs and dry dock maintenance include MV Nyayo, MV Kilindini, MV Harambee, MV Kwale and MV Likoni.

According to Ngowa, either MV Likoni or MV Kwale will be deployed by late October or early November at the Mtongwe Ferry.