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{
    "id": 1130287,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1130287/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Members, because of the sheer depth and breadth of this Port, it has the potential to re-organise the world‟s shipping network by becoming a trans-shipment hub in Africa. Trans- shipment hubs are ports that allow large vessels that are unable to access destined ports of call due to their size. There are only five trans-shipment hubs globally, and the Port of Lamu has the potential to become the sixth. If we remain focused on our development agenda, this will become a reality sooner than later. There is another strategic niche in the Port of Lamu that is also futuristic. This Port is placed right in the middle of the manufacturing hub of the Asian Continent in the East and the heart of consumption in the West. The distance between Shanghai, the manufacturing hub in the East, and Rotterdam, a consumption port in the West, is approximately 12,000 nautical miles. However, the distance between Rotterdam and Lamu is only 6,000 nautical miles. If we were to make the coastal region an outsourced manufacturing hub for western products, the Port of Lamu has the potential to cut the price of those products by half. This would, therefore, be based purely on shipping costs because the Port of Lamu is half the distance to the West compared to the Port of Shanghai. If we are to see the Port of Lamu through this futuristic lens, we will exploit our geographical advantages to make an imprint on global trade. Another big push investment we have made in support of regional trade through our ports is the expansion of the Kipevu Oil Refinery and Oil Terminal. For 128 years, Kenya has served the five countries of the region using only one oil berth at the Kipevu Oil Terminal. This single oil berth could only handle one vessel at a time, and for the most part, it took one vessel days to offload its fuel. This meant that the other vessels in the queue to offload had to wait, incurring huge demurrage charges and penalties by oil marketers. The resultant costs of these inefficiencies are borne by the Kenyan consumer, which, overall, makes our economy uncompetitive. This year alone, we lost an average of Khs1 billion in the first four months in demurrages at the Old Kipevu Oil Terminal. To tear down the barriers that make our country uncompetitive, we have put up a new oil terminal that I shall be opening soon, and that will accommodate four vessels at a time. Instead of taking a whole day offloading fuel, each of the four vessels will take five hours to offload their fuel cargo. This means that every terminal will handle over 20 vessels a day. Put differently, if the old terminal has handled around 300 fuel vessels per year on average, the new terminal has the capacity to handle 7,300 vessels annually. Coupled with the improved transportation system connecting Kenya with its neighbours, the expanded capacity will boost our regional trade as well as remove the cost of demurrage and penalties that the Kenyan consumer has to pay. Hon. Speakers, one of my administration‟s key priorities has been to revive State undertakings that have been designated as „dead capital‟. I have done this as part of our „Big Push Investments‟ because the utility of these State undertakings could not be allowed to go to waste."
}