Goods delay as cargo carrier aground in Mombasa
Cargo containers at the Port of Mombasa in September last year.
Several clients who were expecting a delivery of their goods to Dar es Salaam from Mombasa port are counting losses as a barge with consignment lies along Nyali Creek for more than two months after it ran aground.
The barge (a marine vessel primarily used to carry cargo and is pulled by tugboat), ran aground on May 29 with 209 containers but since then very little efforts has been made to retrieve it.
Comarco Group, owners of the barge, Messina Shipping Line company hired the barge and the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has remained silent with no official from the three organisations willing to address the matter.
This week, the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA), the agency in charge of regulatory oversight over the Kenyan maritime industry raised concern over the delay saying there was a need to remove the vessel from the creek.
KMA maritime research officer John Omondi said the Comarco barge 3652 with eight crew on board towed by MV Northwind, broke away and ran aground on May 21, prompting local company Alpha Logistics to attempt an intervention.
Mr Omondi said efforts to rescue the barge were thwarted by rough sea conditions, including strong winds and high swells.
“We have been following up on the matter of the delay of towing the vessel which the operators blame on high tides but we have asked relevant bodies to resume the salvage process to avoid any further environmental degradation,” said Mr Omondi.
He added, “As KMA, we are continuously conducting a risk assessment to ensure no pollution as we urge owners of the consignment to make alternative means to offload the cargo.” On the first day after the vessel ran aground, KPA was forced to suspend salvage operations for the barge citing the danger posed to the lives and safety of all involved and has been awaiting improved weather conditions before resuming operations since then.
The barge, laden with containers, became stranded despite warnings from port control and local pilots against departure due to adverse weather.
Mombasa Port has been using small vessels to boost its transhipment of cargo to Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Comoros which has helped improve cargo throughput which increased from 1.43 million metric tonnes in 2021 to 1.62 million metric tonnes in 2023.
To improve the numbers, the government is mulling chartering vessels to undertake local transshipments of cargo in a bid to recover more than Sh600 billion in revenue currently going to foreign-registered vessels annually.
Mombasa Port handles more than two million containers annually.
