Lamu News

The first ships docked at Kenya's deep water Lamu Port on Thursday as the country looks to open a new transport corridor linking its vast northern region and neighboring nations to the sea.Kenyan officials hope that the Indian Ocean port, the country's second deep water facility, will attract cargo destined for neighboring landlocked nations Ethiopia and South Sudan, and offer transhipment services where large vessels bring in cargo for onward distribution by smaller ships.The Lamu Port…

It was 6pm when an unusual rainbow-colored boat, made of recycled plastic waste and discarded flip-flops gathered from beaches and roadsides, dropped anchor off the beach at Mtwapa, near Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa.The 9-meter-long dhow, "The Flipflopi", was sailing south along East Africa's coast to raise awareness of the threat plastics pose to the oceans, said chief boat-builder and captain Ali Skanda.Beaches and marine ecosystems have been badly affected by plastics, Skanda said…

The launch of a coastguard in Kenya - one of a handful in Africa - could cut illegal fishing and boost the economy, experts said on Tuesday, although the service only has one boat so far.Kenya loses about $97 million a year to foreign boats fishing without permission, President Uhuru Kenyatta said at the launch on Monday, vowing to crack down on drug, people and arms smuggling along Kenya's lengthy coast."The role of the coastguard is quite pivotal," said David Obura, coordinator for a coastal research organisation, Cordio East Africa. "Just like on land, until you establish security of tenure its very challenging to manage it."Africa's fish stocks are being depleted by industrial trawlers which comb the oceans to feed European and Asian markets…

Kenyan islanders have built a boat made entirely of recycled plastic collected during clean-ups of the ocean to highlight the growing menace of plastic waste that ends up in the sea.Last year, the Kenyan government imposed the world’s toughest law against plastic bags, with offenders - including producers, retailers, and ordinary Kenyans - risking imprisonment for up to four years or fines of $40,000, in a bid to reduce plastic pollution.Many bags drift into the ocean, strangling turtles, suffocating seabirds and filling the stomachs of dolphins and whales.The construction of the boat has been

Activists hailed a Kenyan court for ordering that almost 5,000 fishermen at a 14th century World Heritage Site receive millions in compensation for the loss of traditional fishing rights due to the construction of a major port.The fishermen in Lamu, the oldest Swahili settlement in East Africa, won 1.76 billion shillings ($18 million) in compensation this week from a court in the nearby town of Malindi, which also said their rights to culture and information had been violated."We were happy with the judgment…

The beaches of Kenya's idyllic Lamu island are dotted with traditional Swahili stone and coral houses, mansions built by European royalty, the odd donkey and, increasingly, tidal lines of plastic trash. When a resident organised a beach clean-up that collected 33 tons of rubbish in a single summer, British-Ethiopian safari organiser Ben Morrison decided he couldn't stand by while his beloved island was ruined. So the tall, bearded 42-year-old decided to try to design a traditional dhow…

Efforts by the government to attract investors to help build 29 berths at the proposed Lamu port has received a boost from African Development Bank, said a report in The Star, Kenya. The port has received a $1.9 million grant to cater for advisory services and technical support in developing a feasible plan for the port. Last week, the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset) Corridor has received $1.93 million  from the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). Kenyan Transport Principal Secretary Irungu Nyakera said 20 per cent of the work has been completed and the government will set aside US$97.1mn to the port project in the coming fiscal year.

A Cambodian-registered container ship and a fishing boat sank in rough seas off Phuket on Wednesday morning, but the navy saved both crews. The cargo ship Sinaran Andaman reportedly suffers an engine problem en route from Tub Lamu and the heavy seas forced it onto the nearby rock sat Koh Hae island south of Phuket about 10am. It began taking in water. The 10-member crew managed to board a lifeboat and were airlifted in good health condition by a Royal Thai Navy helicopter. The 10 crew members, six Indonesians and four from Myanmar were rescued by a helicopter of the 3rd Naval Area Command. The 68-metre-long, 793-gross-ton ship belongs to Andaman Unik Co in Penang, Malaysia. It was last in port at Tub Lamu, Phang Nga.

Kenya is ready to begin work on the first three berths at a long-delayed port on its northern coast, next to the historic trading town of Lamu, President Uhuru Kenyatta said in his annual State of the Nation address on Thursday. The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project, first proposed in the 1970s, will give landlocked South Sudan and Ethiopia access to the Indian Ocean and bolster the economy of northern Kenya. "The administrative infrastructure for this project is complete, and I will in the next few days break ground on the construction of the initial three berths of Lamu port," Kenyatta told a gathering of Parliament.

In its heyday, Bagamayo was a gateway to the heart of Africa for colonisers, with trade goods surging in from the Indian Ocean, and timber, ivory and countless slaves exported from the east coast harbour. Then Bagamoyo, which looks out towards the island of Zanzibar, fell on lean times for more than a century. Now Tanzania plans an $11 billion project to make it the region's biggest port and an engine of Africa's boom. The Chinese-backed project would dwarf Kenya's port at Mombasa, east Africa's trade gateway some 300 km (180 miles) to the north, and include an industrial zone and rail and road links to capitalise on growth in a region hoping to exploit new oil and gas finds.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that the construction of the proposed Lamu port is set to begin next month, with the promise of more jobs and expanded regional trade. The facility, which is part of the Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor project, will provide an opportunity for exploitation of Kenya’s expansive maritime resources, he said. Kenya’s maritime domain extends over 230,000 square kilometres — the equivalent of about 31 of our 47 counties. This vast resource has hitherto lain untapped by Kenyans. Special attention must be paid to education and training, so that our skills match the infrastructure we are building, he added.

Kenya will start construction work next month on a long-delayed new port to be built on its northern coast, next to the historic trading town of Lamu, the presidency announced on Monday. The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project is intended to include a port, new roads, a railway and a pipeline by 2030 that will give landlocked South Sudan and Ethiopia access to the Indian Ocean. The overall price of the project, first proposed in the 1970s, has been put at $25.5 billion. Among the reasons for the delay are demands from landowners for greater compensation. "Construction of the Lamu port begins next month, President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced," the presidency said in a statement, without specifying the scope of the work.

Kenya signed a $270 million loan deal with Japan on Friday to help expand capacity at Mombasa port, a busy facility that is the main trade gateway to east Africa. The port handles fuel, consumer goods and other imports for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, as well as regional tea and coffee exports. Container traffic through the port reached about one million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014, up 11.9 percent on a year earlier. The port management said it expected a 30 percent increase to 1.3 million TEUs in 2015. Officials said the loan would support the purchase of cargo handling equipment, help finance a brand new container terminal and aid construction of another terminal already being built.

Container traffic through East Africa's biggest port of Mombasa grew by 11.9 percent in 2014, helped by its expanded capacity, a marketing drive, and new infrastructure built to shorten the turnaround time for ships, port management said on Wednesday. The Indian Ocean port is seen as a measure for economic activity in east Africa as it handles fuel, consumer goods and other imports for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, and exports of tea and coffee from the region.

Bamburi Cement's pretax profit slumped 28 percent to 2.3 billion shillings ($26.20 million) in the first half of 2014, the company said on Thursday, as it outlined plans to profit from Kenya's ambitious infrastructure spending plans. Controlled by French firm Lafarge SA, Bamburi is the biggest cement maker in east Africa's largest economy, where a construction boom driven by infrastructure projects and real estate has helped boost demand for cement. "We are optimistic that the business environment will progressively improve in the second half of the year," the company said in a statement, citing upcoming infrastructure projects in Kenya. Bamburi said it expects Kenya's planned infrastructure projects, including roads, railways and a new Indian Ocean port in Lamu, to improve sales.

Container traffic through Kenya's biggest port grew by 12.8 percent in the first six months of the year after new cargo handling infrastructure was built to shorten the turnaround time for ships. The Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, the biggest in east Africa and the region's trade gateway, handles fuel and consumer goods imports as well as exports of tea and coffee from landlocked neighbours such as Uganda and South Sudan. Gichiri Ndua, the port's managing director, said in a statement…

Kenya's main port of Mombasa handled 1.8 percent more cargo in 2013, aided by improved efficiency and capacity, the port's management said. Landlocked neighbors like Uganda and South Sudan rely on the port for the shipment of commodity exports and imports. A report by the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) seen by Reuters on Tuesday said a total of 22.3 million tonnes of cargo moved through the port in 2013, up from 21.9 million in the previous year. Container traffic dipped marginally to 900,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2013, down from to 903,443 registered the previous year. The port handled 6.6 million tonnes of transit cargo in 2013 with land locked Uganda remaining the most frequent destination of goods arriving in Mombasa…

According to a report from The Korea Times, a South Korean fishing boat was hijacked by Somali pirates Oct. 9 in waters off Lamu, Kenya, which was considered a relatively safe maritime area, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. Two South Koreans identified only by their surname Kim — one, the 54-year-old owner of the ship and the other, the 67-year-old captain — were on board the 241-ton trawler Keummi 305.  Also on board were two Chinese and 39 Kenyans. (Source: The Korea Times)