Seafarers in the country now want the government to lower the fees for the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping course.
They say the fee is too high for most seafarers who are generally poor.
The 10-day course goes for Sh35,000 at the Bandari Maritime Academy.
Without that certification, no seafarer can get a job aboard any ship.
Seafarers Union of Kenya secretary general Atie Swaleh on Saturday called on Mining and Blue Economy CS Salim Mvurya to fulfil his promise of reducing the STCW training fees.
“If the government can reduce it to about Sh25,000 or even Sh20,000, it would be a great relief for our poor seafarers,” Swaleh said.
She spoke at the Little Theatre Club in Mbaraki, Mombasa, after a meeting with the seafarers to discuss way forward for the union and open a new office in Ganjoni.
There are more than 8,000 seafarers in Kenya but only about 3,500 are registered with the union.
Swaleh called on the seafarers in the country to register with the union to benefit from the union’s efforts in securing a better welfare for them.
She said since the new office bearers started their reign after almost three years of wrangling, there are systems in place to ensure the union effectively takes care of the welfare of seafarers.
She called for a truce with the government saying the new office is ready to work smoothly with them.
The wrangles, she said, greatly affected the progress of Kenyan seafarers.
“For instance, in Kenya we have no wage standards. This makes Kenyan seafarers vulnerable to exploitation by some of the ship owners.
“If we set a wage standard for Kenyan seafarers like other countries, our seafarers will not be exploited anymore, being given peanuts for work worth more,” Swaleh said.
SUK chairman Mwalimu Chii said unity of seafarers is key to achieving most of their goals.
He said since the wrangles ended, they are now receiving requests from ship owners and shipping lines for seafarers.
Chii and Swaleh also want the financial institutions that have been giving loans to seafarers to now be in touch with the union to iron out certain issues that have been affecting seafarers.
In the past, financial institutions have been giving loans to seafarers individually without involving the union but after defaulting, the institutions harass the union signed as guarantors.
“Now we want the loans to pass through the union so that we know who owes what institution what amount. So that we know how to handle defaulters,” Swaleh said.
Chii said there is also need to train more youthful seafarers saying the old and experienced seafarers need to pass their experience to the young generation.
“In the past, the seafarers used to represent the country abroad because there were no ambassadors. Today, seafarers are only a reflection of the old days. We need to get seafarers back to the height of the olden days when we used to be respected,” Chii said.
He said a seafarer must have at least five certificates before being allowed aboard a ship and all the five need money.
“But seafarers today are poor people who cannot afford such fees to get the certificates. We need help from the government,” he said.
He said the union is knocking on various doors to seek sponsorship for these courses.
“We call on seafarers to be patient. Soon, we will have things looking up,” he said.
Kenya Coast Blue Economy chairman Mbwana Abdalla said they have now established a maritime training institute to help fill the gap created by the ageing seafarer population in the country.
The Coast Blue Economy Training Institute, established at Eleven House in Old Town near the Old Port, will help create another fresher pool of young seafarers who will join the maritime industry and give it the energy boost it deserves, according to Abdalla.
“If you take a look, the seafarers we have are ageing and now there is a shortfall of seafarers. And today, unlike in the olden days, you cannot just get a job as a seafarer, you need to have a course,” he said.
He said there are three career sectors related to seafarers, including artisanal, hospitality and mariners.
“We saw the need to teach students who have just finished school some of these courses that are related to seafarers to help them get jobs in ships,” he said.