Trucks within the port of Mombasa waiting to be loaded with imported
sugar. A ship carrying 40,000 tonnes of sugar is yet offload, 10 months
after it docked at the Port of Mombasa. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA
GROUP
A ship carrying 40,000 tonnes of sugar is yet offload, 10 months after it docked at the Port of Mombasa.
The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) said the ship docked in August last year.
KPA
General Manager and harbour master Captain William Ruto said the ship
was denied approval to offload the cargo. The details emerged following
last week’s revelations that a ship bringing 10,000 tonnes of Morocco
fertiliser to Mombasa fled to the high seas to avoid the cargo being
tested before it was offloaded.
The government said it would pursue the vessel using Interpol to make sure it does not offload the cargo anywhere.
LOST SH150 MILLION
Meanwhile,
the government could have lost Sh50 million last month after KPA
transferred handling of export of iron ore to a private company under
unclear circumstances.
KPA, which is in charge of loading and
offloading of consignments getting in and out of the country, allowed a
logistic company to handle 56,000 tonnes of iron ore that was
transported from Taita Taveta.
The iron ore was packed into a ship that came from Far East and arrived in the country on June 20.
BRINGING MINERALS
Sources
at the Mombasa port revealed that the ship had earlier indicated that
it was bringing the minerals as the country sometimes imports iron ore,
only for it to be loaded with it.
“We
were shocked to see that the information we were given was different
from the one we received as the ship had come to export the minerals,”
said a source.
An official of a
company which used to deal with the transportation of iron ore told
Nation the ship was still being loaded with the minerals. Persistent
wrangles over ownership of the iron ore mining field had led to loss of
income to the community, the county and national government's revenues.
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