Inside Africa: Kenyan President Opens Deepwater Port In Hopes Of Expanding Regional Trade Opportunities
SIMON MAINA
A new deep-water port at the Kenyan island of Lamu welcomed its first ships this past Thursday, launching a potentially significant trade corridor for neighboring countries. The first berth of Lamu Port was officially opened by President Uhuru Kenyatta in a recent ceremony, where he observed the loading and unloading of two ships. Constructed by the China Communication Company at $480m, the berth has a depth of 17.5m and has the capacity of handling 400,000 containers per year. A cornerstone of the Kenyan governments’ “Vision 2030” development plan, the port is now branded as being a game-changer from both the regional and Kenyan economies.
The $3 billion Lamu port is merely part of an even larger $23 billion regional transport corridor known as LAPSSET, or the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor. The project in its entirety launched nearly a decade ago in 2012, with the transport corridor intending to ease the flow of goods between Kenya and its two northern, landlocked neighbors while also easing congestion at Mombasa, East Africa’s business port in the south.
“Lamu Port has the potential to become a premier transshipment hub for all cargo destined for the continent," Kenyatta said as the first two container ships ceremonially docked at the port's first completed berth. "This port will connect South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Eventually, it will connect northern Kenya to the Middle Belt of Africa which runs from Dakar, Senegal, in the west to Lamu in the east," he added.
Currently, there are few usable roads and no railways crossing the continent, but a route between Dakar, on the Atlantic Ocean, to Lamu, on the Indian Ocean, would have to pass through several impoverished countries mired in conflict. Domestically, the port is the terminus of an infrastructure project designed to open up Kenya's long-neglected and isolated northern areas.
The so-called “landlocked trap,” a concept coined by Paul Collier, a professor of economics at Oxford, recognizes that many states are cut off from trade access as they lack water ports. Collier's presentation focuses on the fact that landlocked and resource-scarce states are often barred from the international trade community as they lack the infrastructure and waterways to participate. While very few countries in the world share both features of being landlocked and resource-scarce, a staggering 30 percent of Africa's population resides in landlocked and resource-scarce states.
In its early ambition, the Lamu port figured as connecting the landlocked East African economies to global trade routes. More specifically, it was envisioned as an alternative outlet for South Sudan’s oil, which is currently pumped via the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline to Port Sudan. Infrastructure projects such as the Lamu port becomes important in altering this reality of the landlocked trap — the port acts as a convenient connection point for landlocked Ethiopia and Sudan, opening them to further trade opportunities in the international community.
The port also hosts plenty of domestic benefits. The project was constructed with the aim of integrating marginalized northern Kenya with the rising Kenyan economy. The road network through the northern frontier will be presenting opportunities for commerce for the region.
Mobilizing projections about future trade, the Kenyan government has persistently argued that the Lamu port will become a viable and necessary complement to the hub of Mombasa. Local authorities specifically invest their hopes in plans for a special economic zone, though to date these have rather been elusive. This promises significant investments in the port and the creation of hundreds of jobs.
As with any large-scale domestic project, the port too fathers some concern. Firstly, the port has already angered some locals, as much of the transformation promised by the vast infrastructure project remains to be realized by the local population. From the start, the 32-berth port construction project faced a great deal of opposition from local businessmen who depended heavily on tourism and fishing, as well as environmental groups.
Different rights groups have documented numerous complaints by residents about compulsory land acquisition. One study found that the government had taken more land than it paid compensation for. Another major concern touches on the environmental impact of the port’s construction, some of which came to light in a 2018 High Court ruling. Local protests against the project have been met with harassment by Kenyan security forces as the economic livelihoods of hundreds of local fishermen will be disrupted by the port because its extensive restricted area restrains access to viable fishing grounds. And in contravention of a court ruling that awarded fishers about KSH1.7 billion (US$ 18.4 million) compensation for their economic losses, the government has delayed the payments over disagreements about the list of beneficiaries and the mode of compensation.
A group called Save Lamu accused the government of "acting in bad faith" and reneging on a promise to compensate fishermen for lost income and environmental damage caused by construction, in accordance with a 2018 High Court ruling. "Promises of compensation for harms caused by Lamu Port date back to 2014," the group said in a statement. "Lamu's community is still waiting."
Another key concern circles back to the security risks of militant groups currently active in the region. Being just 100Km from the Somalian border, Lamu has witnessed militant attacks in the past 15 years. The network of roads will be passing through the sparsely populated region and thus they will stand vulnerable to attacks from Somalia-based militant groups. Attacks by the al-Shabaab militant group have brought violence to the area and turned it into a highly securitized region. Security operations have significantly reduced insecurity incidences, through periodic al-Shabaab attacks have affected construction activities.