Port of Lamu
The Kenyan government has said it will start building a second port at the coastal town of Lamu next year.
Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere said on Wednesday that the government has allocated US$45 million to the project, adding that some of the funds had come from the controversial sale of the former Grand Regency hotel.
Mr Makwere told reporters that construction work for the port, planned to be bigger than that of Mombasa, is scheduled to start in February 2010.
“It is a port which will be bigger than Mombasa (port). Construction work according to our schedule should start in February 2010,” Mwakwere said.
“Everything remaining equal, we should have the first ships calling at the Port of Lamu in Manda Bay by the end of 2011, when we shall have two or three berths ready to pick up or deliver cargo.”
Lamu port project will be part of a broader US$22 billion development plan that includes railway lines, a pipeline, roads and airports to open up the northern part of the country and link east Africa’s biggest economy with Sudan and Ethiopia.
The minister said there will be a highway and rail link joining Lamu with Lokichoggio, close to the border with Sudan in the northwest, and another to link it with Moyale in the north, close to the Ethiopian border. – Reuters
Update (September 20, 2011) – Government asks for Lamu bids.
Update (July 27, 2011) – Lamu Port construction to commence soon.
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July 27, 2011 at 8:30 pm
This will benefit the Chinese they are the ones funding the project.
July 23, 2011 at 4:08 pm
So sad that until now July 23 2011 this project has not started. So sad!
April 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Let the port be built! The Americans and Europeans are much opposed as its not in their economic favour. If they are serious on environmental conservation let them first demolish their ports and restore the nature. Lamu is rated as a home of the poorest communities in Kenya. How has environmental conservation helped them? Local people ask of benefit. Is this not selfishness which should first be opposed? If this selfishness is the law, those nurses employed last year in Lamu East from other provinces should not have been employed! Adverts for the vacancies got no response from Lamu East – since the region has no trained nurses! And yet when the locals face disaster European organizations compete to help them.