Hamisi Mwaguya: KMA boss seeking to tap blue economy's potential

Aptly nicknamed ‘Quick’ due to his prowess in basketball, and from an NBA advert on TV, Hamisi Mwaguya has had to learn things quickly since his childhood.

Born to a 19-year-old mother at Ziwa la Ng’ombe in Nyali constituency, Mwaguya had to quickly learn how to live without seeing his mother often because she was away in school.

He was raised by his grandparents, who also lived in Ziwa la Ng’ombe.

“My mother was in nursing school and was often not around because she had to attend to her studies. My grandfather is the one who educated me,” Mwaguya said.

His education begun at a nursery school near their home in the early 80s, Mwaguya then went to Frere Town Primary School but by Standard 3  transferred to a school in Meru.

“I studied in Meru for quite some time. I completed Class 8 and went up to Form 4 in Meru. I had to learn the language in the process because I was far away from my parents and grandparents,” he says.

Mwaguya aspired to be an engineer like his father. His dream seemed to be coming true when his father "contracted" his services after his Form 4 to work with him on some of his projects.

“I really thought I was going to be one when doing this work. But then my subject combination would not allow,” he says.

So when he joined Moi University in Eldoret, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1992.

Here, he met and quickly became friends with current UDA secretary general and EALA MP Hassan Omar.

He graduated in 1997 and was soon employed by Mackenzie Maritime, a shipping company that owned several shipping lines, gaining wide experience and knowledge.

“Back then, there were very many small shipping lines. Over time, shipping has changed because today, there are few giant shipping lines which bought most of the small ones,” Mwaguya says.

After a stint at Maersk Shipping Line, he, in 2006, went to Sudan to work for a logistics company.

“A business partner insisted that we do business there. I was doing imports, supplying food and uniform and construction materials to the army there. I worked in Sudan for two years and made some good money,” he says.

By then, current Mining and Blue Economy CS Hassan Joho, a childhood friend, had already immersed himself in politics. 

Joho had vied for the Kisauni MP seat for the first time in 2004, in a by-election following the death of Karisa Maitha.

“I had known Joho since our childhood. When my mother completed her nursing school, I went to Buxton estate to live with my parents. There, Joho used to come to visit his cousins and we developed a friendship then. So when an opportunity came to help him in his campaigns ahead of the 2007 general election, I gladly grasped it,” Mwaguya says.

He says he had gained some political knowledge from his cousin who successfully vied for the Ziwa la Ng’ombe councillor seat.

His cousin was in Joho’s camp and they both won their respective seats, Joho having captured the Kisauni MP seat from Ananiah Mwaboza.

Mwaguya’s cousin negotiated with Joho and he was appointed a member of the Kisauni CDF, representing the youth.

“At this point, my work in Sudan was still ongoing and I was frequently traveling to the country for business until my contract ended.

“By the time it ended in 2009, the Kisauni CDF chair had resigned and I was given that position,” he says.

By that time Kisauni was a big constituency with 13 wards, before Nyali was curved out of it.

“We did very many projects including schools, health centres and many other impactful projects. We touched many lives and it is this work that propelled Joho to become the first governor of Mombasa in 2013. I became the first Mombasa county secretary,” he says.

Mwaguya served Joho’s administration in various other capacities including chief of staff and then trade executive.

In 2017, he unsuccessfully vied for the Mombasa senator seat after his friend Omar, who had served as Mombasa Senator from 2013 to 2017, went for the governor position.

“I consulted Omar, who I had known from our days in university, where he had come with military regalia because he had been a cadet in the airforce, and he gave me his blessings to vie for the seat,” Mwaguya says.

It is this friendship from university that made Mwaguya support Omar for the senator seat in 2013 despite being in different political parties.

Mwaguya was in ODM while Omar was in Wiper.

“Although Joho was going for the governor seat on an ODM ticket with our support and campaigns, he knew our senator was Omar. He had no problem with it,” he said.

But due to his friendship with Joho—who retained his seat— he was recruited as an adviser in his administration.

When the political bug bites, it is hard to keep off and Mwaguya still yearned to be senator.

And because he knew ODM had its problems, he opted to join UDA for the 2022 elections.

“It didn't work out but fortunately the President won. We fought for him in Mombasa, becoming the first presidential candidate running against Raila in Mombasa and getting more than 28 per cent of the votes. Ruto got 44 per cent of the votes in Mombasa. Unprecedented,” Mwaguya says.

“Because he is a man of his word, and he had seen our work, he appointed me the chairperson of the Kenya Maritime Authority.” 

After 11 years in shipping, the time was right for Mwaguya to help push the Bottom-Up Transformation Agenda.

His expertise in shipping and maritime matters will come in handy to help exploit the blue economy's huge potential.

Mombasa is a port city and there is a lot that can happened that is yet to happen.

“We need to fight to return ship repair and dry docking to Mombasa. We are pushing to get ships repaired locally. Africa Marine used to employ about 2,000 because of dry docking,” he says.

Mwaguya says the current incentives are not enough to encourage dry docking in East Africa because of the taxes and spare parts.

“We need to re-introduce this conversation.” 

Kenya can also adopt ship recycling with the right policies in place, he says.

Ship recycling is the structured destruction of a ship at the end of her life cycle. This can produce plenty of steel that can be melted and used for other purposes in the steel industry.

“There is a big industry around ship recycling,” the KMA chair says.

He says although many countries destroy the environment through ship recycling, Kenya, at the right time, will be using the Hong Kong Convention, which comes into effect next June.

The convention has regulations on how ships should be recycled cleanly without destroying the environment.

“The facilities are supposed to be built in a way that no chemical gets into the water during recycling. The waste is collected and disposed of responsibly.

“If we can attract an investor with the right incentives to set up such a facility, it can create jobs. It can also help us reduce the cost of steel because the steel from the dead ship can be recycled and used in other industries,” he says.

Mwaguya says Kenya must push for a regional cabotage law that allows African countries to trade amongst themselves.

“This means we will be mandated by law to receive cargo from Europe aboard European vessels and load them in Africa ships for distribution among African ports, using African ships,” he says.

The US, through the Johns’ Law, introduced this a long time ago.

“It will take time but we have to start. We had our first conference last November to find modalities of how to do it. Currently, each African country is working on regulations on cabotage so that we support local shipping line.

“If it can be harmonised across Africa, it will help us,” he says.