President William Ruto has transferred the operations of the port from Nairobi and Naivasha inland Container Depots (ICDS) to Mombasa.
While addressing the nation during his inauguration ceremony, Ruto said that this move was aimed at restoring thousands of jobs that had been lost in Mombasa.
“This afternoon, I will be issuing instructions for clearance of all goods and other attendant operational issues to revert to the port of Mombasa. This restores thousands of jobs in the city of Mombasa,” the president stated.
During the campaign period before the general election, Ruto had on several occasions asserted that transfer of port operations from Mombasa to Naivasha was against the agreement made during the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
According to him, the relocation of the port functions by his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta had been done in order to benefit a few individuals and ended up hurting Mombasa’s economy.
Kenyatta had moved some of the operations of the port to Nakuru in an effort to decongest the port of Mombasa while lowering the cost of transporting goods.
The move did not go down well with cargo owners who were being forced to ferry their goods to Nairobi or Naivasha via the SGR for onward clearance.
They protested the directive stating that it would increase the cost of transacting business, which would then be passed on to consumers.
Leaders and politicians from the coast accused the Jubilee government of neglecting the economic needs of Mombasa residents as the relocation had rendered the locals jobless.
The then government was further criticized for issuing the directive without consulting stakeholders. The administration had also failed to address the inefficiencies associated with the port and the ICD in Nairobi.