State to develop maritime sector as next frontier for economic expansion

The National government will focus on developing the maritime sector as the next frontier for Kenya's economic expansion, Maritime and Blue Economy PS Shadrack Mwadime has said.

Speaking during the World Maritime Day celebrations in Mombasa, Mwadime said countries like Singapore and Dubai were transformed from third-world countries to first-world economies within one generation, primarily by focusing on maritime resources.

He said the maritime sector offers diverse job opportunities, spanning scientific and humanities-related fields.

Graduates in science, humanities, hospitality, accounting, human resources, and procurement can find fulfilling careers within this industry.

"For too long, Africans have struggled to improve their living standards, with many of our young people seeking opportunities abroad. We have abundant resources within our maritime sector, and if we harness them effectively, we can bolster our economy and provide a brighter future for our young population, which constitutes 70 per cent of our citizens,” Mwadime said.

The PS emphasised the need to sensitise youths about the importance of safeguarding the oceans and inland waters from pollution and giving environmental protection a priority.

He said laws and regulations, such as those enforced by National Environment Management Authority and the Merchant Shipping Act, will be used to combat marine pollution and protect the environment.

"Most ships which have been docking, there is a lot of fuel which has been coming out from them. But in Kenya we have laws therefore whenever we see all those things happening, we take the law in order to reduce the pollution in our ocean," he said.

He said they are working closely with learning institutions like JKUAT  to make them have the interest in generating green energy.

"As much as we are not focusing on fossil fuels, we know it is cheap fuel that can be used as a catalyst to industrialise our economy. Therefore we want to implore particularly on research institutes, to see the potential that is available within the maritime sector, come up with innovations that will assist our economy expand," Mwadime said.

He said hydrogen energy can be accessed through research by young people having the ability to generate it so that as a country, it can also be able to sell it within and also internationally.

"We are going hydrogen as it is now in terms of  propelling ships internationally, that is something simple that can be undertaken by our researchers."

"So it makes sense to say the future is in the blue economy. This is where our focus should be and even for the government in terms of resources, the return on investment. If we were to plough our resources in the blue economy, it will be extremely high," he said.

The PS said Kenya is still a developing country but never the less, there are strategies put in place to adopt policies which will transform the country to a first world using maritime resources. 

 "Yes we are still far, but I think we have confidence in ourselves that as Africans, we have the capacities within. We have a number of graduates tarmacking out there who if engaged, can be a resource that can be used to transform our economies."

"What we are saying is we will not look down upon ourselves as Africans countries within the global south and assume that we will remain like that for a indefinite period of time," he said.

Kenya Maritime chairperson Hamisi Mwaguya said they are committed to ensuring environment issues relating to ships and ocean pollution in general are enforced.

He said they are sensitising stakeholders who are concerned with ocean issue and also directing youth because they are the future leaders who will ensure the ocean is protected. 

"If you pollute the ocean, it also affects us on agriculture and long term drought seasons which is caused by climate change. Therefore, we as KMA,  want to re-emphasise our commitment to the industry of regulating the space, to ensure all the conventions that Kenya has ratified and signed with international maritime organisations are enforced and implemented to the fullest," he said.

He said they are also creating awareness to the general public and communities to be part of protecting maritime space.

On the preparedness of the anticipated El Nino rains, he said they have plans in place through their maritime communication search and rescue centre to sensitise Beach Management Units and all stakeholders using the ocean.

Mwaguya said they have special plans of working with the community who will help in making life jackets.

"We want to start a programme which will be done by women groups who will be trained on how to make the life jackets.  We will later take the jackets to the market for them to be available at a cheaper price," he said.

KMA director general John Oming'o said they are on a mission of creating awareness on the importance of sustainable use of the environment because the ocean waters help  a lot.

People must be careful on how they handle their waste that comes from the plastic bottles and fuel that ships are using in waters.

The DG said vessels coming in can pollute the water either through the operations because they are not careful on how they deal with the waste which comes from the engines, or it could come from accidents that may happen.

To control the pollution that might happen as a result of accident, they have deployed the marine inspectors and pilots who are employers of KMA, to ensure all ships coming to the port, they go on-board, check how prepared and safe they are. "If any vessel is not safe, we can sustain it, we can tell it to go and repair as we also inform the next port. It is a whole network on how we communicate the information."

"So every inspection we carry out on onboard vessel, it is relayed globally so that everybody can see which vessel we have picked out not to be safe," he said.

The vessel can promise to do the correction in next port of call or if the problem is very serious, they detain it.