Make Kisumu an import-export hub to turn around its fortunes

A stalled ship at Kisumu old port. The Government says Sh14 billion has been allocated for the new port to be constructed six kilometres south of the current one. [PHOTO: COLLINS ODUOR/STANDARD]

The vision of growing Kisumu into the country’s second major port as well as turning it into East Africa’s transport hub inches closer to reality with the help of Chinese expertise and financing.

But the expected returns will only be realised fully if the Government does the heavy lifting needed to avoid building a white elephant by leaving the responsibility of setting up businesses that will utilise the new port to the private sector. The sluggish pace at which business is growing around Kisumu International Airport should sound an alarm that the days of the Government developing infrastructure and leaving the private sector to do the rest are over.

What is needed is for the national and county levels of government to craft and implement a master-plan that would take advantage of the new developments. For starters, the regional economic bloc including Kisumu could, for example, be given both human capital and financial support to grow horticultural produce that would be exported through the expanded airport.

This would dramatically increase the house-hold incomes in these counties which would, in turn, generate effective demand for new products and services. Both the Standard-Gauge Railway (SGR) whose extension from Nairobi is expected to reach Kisumu in the second phase, and the airport, would then be used to transport goods and services to meet this higher demand.

The two levels of government might also find it useful to take a second and closer look at how production of quality fish in Lake Victoria and its environs could be stepped up to meet the growing local, regional and global demand for white meat. Reports that fish production from the lake has fallen so low that China is finding it profitable to import the product into the local market is a matter that deserves close attention.

Pulling in investors

It is not enough for local fishermen and women to stage protests. It is even less satisfactory for local political leaders to echo these protests. The profitable thing to do would be to persuade all stake-holders—at the national and county levels—to go back on the drawing board, find out where the rain began beating the sector, fix it and lay down a more robust foundation for future growth.

Yet another area with the potential to turn the fortunes of the new airport, port and even SGR around is developing Kisumu as East Africa’s regional import and export hub. There is no rational reason why importers from Uganda, South Sudan, Eastern Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Western Tanzania would not opt to use Kisumu as the place to source their imports as opposed to flying all the way to Dubai, China and the rest of Asia.

This would save them time and money. It would also tap into the patriotism of the regional business people whose commitment to the vision of Eastern Africa unity goes beyond an ideal.

Admittedly, developing such a hub would face huge challenges in coalescing the vision around such a project, financing the necessary logistics and pulling in investors. But this is the stuff of which good and effective leadership is made and separates the men from the boys.

Admittedly, too, implementation of such a huge and complex project would also take time to mature which may explain why many a political leader would rather come up with a stand-alone project.

The dangers of these stand-alone projects are obvious for all the discerning eyes to see as they litter much of the developing countries. Going by the sentiments of the Transport Principal Secretary Nyakera Irungu reported in last week’s Standard, the return on investment for Kisumu International Airport is, so far, below expectations. The PS attributes this to the failure by the private sector to take up the business opportunities the airport opened up.

This explains why it is important to take the private sector on-board and get a satisfactory level of commitments before proceeding with any big project. This is because a project that fails to generate adequate returns on investment is an albatross on the neck of the national economy.

The inevitable result would be the emergence of a balance of payment crisis especially when the funds invested were sourced abroad.

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