Playing concessioning soccer in Africa
The political football of privatised port operations in Mombasa is being kicked around again.
In the immediate aftermath of the Kenyan election President-elect Ulhuru Kenyatta visited Mombasa port, toured the existing public container terminal and the construction site for the new container terminal, and stated loud and clear that the government would not privatise port facilities.
He stated that the port would remain in the hands of government, but measures would be put in place to ensure the smooth clearance of goods, currently a problem area for the port’s container terminal. Predictably, his audience at the time was largely made up of port workers, the parties who have long been opposed to any form of privatisation and particularly that of front-line cargo handling facilities.
The announcement of this effective roadblock to privatisation comes not long after signs in February this year that government was prepared to move on privatisation again. Finance Minister Njeru Githae said then urgent steps needed to be taken to eradicate the inefficiencies and capacity constraints at the port with privatisation under consideration in this respect.
This followed on from the suspension of the port privatisation programme by the Privatisation Committee and Finance Ministry in 2011 after major opposition to it from the Dock Workers Union, Coast MPs and local residents.
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta’s key opponent in the Presidential race, also distanced himself from the idea of implementing privatisation in Mombasa port. He was questioned on this topic repeatedly during a three day tour of the Coast Province.
Just as the Kenya election itself has ended almost in limbo with Kenya’s Supreme Court hearing a petition challenging the victory by Uhuru Kenyatta then so it seems the aspirations of those in favour of port privatisation in Mombasa and particularly with regard to container terminal operations have been shelved – again.
The port of Mombasa is once more a political ‘football’ being kicked around at the behest of self-serving politicians. It may serve them to do this but the positive experience of privatisation worldwide suggests that as far as Kenya as a whole is concerned they will score an own goal.