Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir is pushing for amendments to the Merchant
Shipping Act to compel shipping lines to cede part of their business to
locals. PHOTO | FILE
Summary
- Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir is pushing for amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act to compel shipping lines to cede part of their business to locals.
- Kenya relies on about 22 foreign shipping lines to move its imports and exports since there is no locally owned merchant shipping line.
- The petition in Parliament seeks to change all that and lock in the services to locals as initially envisaged under the annulled law.
Kenya looks set to open a new
battlefront with foreign shipping lines as Parliament considers changes
that could squeeze their business and compel them to pay higher
salaries.
Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff
Nassir is pushing for amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act to compel
shipping lines to cede part of their business to locals even as they
are required to raise workers’ pay.
The move comes two
years after foreign shipping lines won a legal battle with High Court
judge George Odunga ruling that rendered section 16(1) of the Merchant
Shipping Act, 2009, ineffective.
The section states:
“No owner of a ship or person providing the service of a shipping line
shall, either directly or indirectly, provide in the maritime industry
the service of crewing agencies, pilotage, clearing and forwarding
agent, port facility operator, shipping agent, terminal operator,
container freight station, quay side service provider, general ship
contractor, haulage, empty container depots or ship chandler.”
Kenya
relies on about 22 foreign shipping lines to move its imports and
exports since there is no locally owned merchant shipping line. Sea
transport moves up to 80 per cent of Kenya’s international trade which
hit Sh2.16 trillion by end of 2015.
The law was enacted
in an effort to shake off foreigners’ grip on Kenya’s shipping
industry. In 2015, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) tried to invoke the
controversial section to lock foreign shipping lines from bidding to run
Mombasa port’s second container terminal. Justice Odunga made the
ruling after APM Terminals, which has links with Maersk shipping line,
moved to court to challenge KPA’s bid to block it from the tender to
operate a container terminal.
The ruling handed back
port-based logistics service provision among them quayside services,
general ship contracting, haulage, ship brokerage, cargo consolidation,
ship repairs and maritime training to multinationals.
The petition in Parliament seeks to change all that and
lock in the services to locals as initially envisaged under the
annulled law.
Mr Nassir said shipping lines were using
the ruling to set up businesses that should be done by Kenyans, adding
that this has resulted to dominance by foreign firms and adversely
affected the employment of locals.
POOR PAY
He
alleged that a scheme by foreign shipping lines to have section 16(1)
of the Act deleted all together, an attempt that he vowed to mobilise
legislators against. “I am aware that a certain MP is being used by
shipping lines in efforts to expunge this section of the law but we will
oppose it. If big companies own container depots and clearing
agencies, which jobs are our people going to do? We cannot allow this to
happen,” he told the Business Daily by phone.
In the
petition dated February 20 2017, the MP also says shipping companies
exploit Kenyans by paying them peanuts and wants amendments to the Act
which will set remuneration by shipping companies.
“The
Bill will address the need to provide a better legislative mechanism
for employment of more Kenyans in preference to foreigners working in
ship,” the petition reads.
He notes that job contracts are unfair to workers, resulting in poor pay.
Mr Nassir also wants companies wishing to hire expatriates to first offer the position to Kenyans.
No comments :
Post a Comment