Faulty ferry won’t dampen Mombasa raha X-mas bash

Hooray! The festive season, that time of the year when everyone hurries excitedly to somewhere or nowhere, is finally here.

Most Nairobians will troop to the village. The more romantic (and loaded) will sneak into national parks to sun it up with lions and elephants or fly out of the country. And as a usual, many are the Nairobians who will make the annual pilgrimage to Mombasa.

But the disturbing news that MV Harambee, a ferry on the Likoni channel, recently overshot a ramp and got stuck on the mainland must be scaring many would-be revellers silly.

Harambee is, however, neither the first nor the last ferry to play Russian roulette with frightened passengers in Mombasa going by periodic reports of potentially disastrous mishaps.

One thing is clear: whenever a ferry stalls midstream across a channel in Mombasa, older passengers tremble because it reminds them of the horrific April 29, 1994 disaster that devastated Kenya and shook the world.

That morning, MV Mtongwe capsized near Kilindini Harbour leaving 257 people dead in what remains the worst maritime disaster in independent Kenya. According to a commission of inquiry headed by Justice Mbogholi Msagha, the ferry, whose capacity was 150 persons, was overloaded by more than 178 people. Only 71 of the 328 people aboard survived.

The Msagha Report said the ferry was overloaded because of police absence at the jetty, human defiance, shortage of ferries, lack of devises to count passengers boarding and a culture that condoned overloading.

Twenty years on, the frequent breakdown and shortage of ferries and fears persist.

And when 11 passengers were seriously injured on October 26 this year in a terrifying stampede at the Likoni channel, tough-talking Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa, Deputy Governor Hazel Katana and general secretary of the Dock Workers Union (DWU) Simon Sang blamed the management of Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) for the mishap.

“Kenya ferry has enough ferries but the main problem is the top management which should be sacked immediately,” Marwa thundered when he visited the troubled channel flanked by Ms Katana.

The deputy governor called for investigations to establish whether there was sabotage in the provisions of the essential service that serves as the only link to the south coast and Tanzania by road from Mombasa.

The chaos occurred when only two ferries — MV Likoni and MV Nyayo were in operation at the rush hour in the morning instead of the usual four. MV Kwale had stalled on the island ramp during low tides while MV Harambee was being repaired after developing mechanical problems.

The fifth vessel, MV Kilindini, has been undergoing mandatory structural dry dock maintenance since September at the African Marine and General Engineering Company shipyard in Likoni, Mombasa County. This procedure, where the whole ferry including the bottom or keel are repaired, takes up to five months.

But insiders say KFS is underfunded and that the ferries are old and costly to maintain. KFS has been facing an acute shortage of vessels since late 2012 when MV Pwani and MV Mvita were decommissioned or withdrawn from service because they were too old. MV Mvita was commissioned in 1969 while MV Pwani, formerly MV Safina, started operating in 1975.

Speaking after a major stampede last month in which eight people were injured, the Principal Secretary in the Roads and Infrastructure Development ministry Dr John Mosonik explained that whereas KFS sought Sh3.7 billion as operational costs from the Government for the 2015/2016 financial year, only Sh2.2 billion was allocated. So far, he added, only Sh84 million had been released for maintenance and operation of the five vessels.

“The ferry operator has to make do with old vessels. As you know, three of the ferries in operation (Nyayo, Kilindini and Harambee) were bought in 1990, while the remaining two (Kwale and Likoni) are five years old,” explained Dr Mosonik.

The newest ferries are MV Kwale and Mv Likoni which were delivered by a Germany shipyard in 2010 at a total cost of Sh1.3 billion.

It has also emerged that the purchase of two new ferries has been delayed as approval of the final design was not yet complete to allow a Turkish firm to build the vessels. Plans by the KFS to start commercial cruises jointly with a private partner have also stalled even after approval of the project by the National Government following recent interest by the Mombasa county government to be incorporated in the project.

The plan is expected to ease pressure at the Likoni channel as those able to pay for service would get an alternative transport mode.

But according to KFS Director Musa Hassan Musa, even if he is fired, the new CEO would still grapple with inadequate funds and aged vessels that are a hazard to passengers and motorists.

“These ferries have been operating 24 hours a day on salty water for the last 25 years. They are too old. We depend on Government funds to offer the service, and funds have been limited,” Musa observed.

He noted that if ferries were stopped from operation for 15 to 20 minutes, Likoni would experience a huge transportation crises. He urged his critics to appreciate what the KFS has done under prevailing circumstances.

Musa also explained that KFS was awaiting to approve the final design of two new ferries to be built in Turkey. KFS awarded tender to a Turkish shipyard company, Ozata Tersanececik Ltd for design, building and commissioning at a cost of US$18.6 million (about Sh2 billion).

Once the final approval of design is done, the two ferries with a capacity of 1,800 passengers and 60 cars each would be built simultaneously and delivered within 10 months. According to Mr Musa, the new ferries will be coastal-going which means they can sail in the high seas and deliver passengers to Mtwapa in Kilifi county or Diani in Kwale county.

“The new ferries will have bigger capacity and be more versatile because they can safely sail to the high seas. Unlike MV Nyayo with a deck height of 3.2 metres, the new vessels will have a height of 3.7 metres. These vessels will be more friendly to persons with disabilities,” Musa explained.

The current fleet of five ferries —MV Nyayo, MV Kilindini, MV Harambee, MV Kwale and MV Likoni — have a capacity of 1500 passengers and 60 vehicles.

Three months ago, about 1,500 passengers on Mv Kwale were thrown into panic when the vessel drifted for about one kilometre to Mama Ngina Drive because the current fleet of vessels at the channel were not built to sail in high seas owing to their type of engines and prows (doors).

KFS handles more than 300,000 passengers and over 6,000 vehicles daily.

In 2014, the company ferried 108 million passengers and close to 2 million motorists from the island to mainland and vice versa.

The repair work for MV Kilindini is expected to be completed in the next three weeks.