The government is targeting to expedite the transfer of lands to neigbouring countries who had been allocate parcels land at the Naivasha Inland Container Depot.
Speaking during the Regional Workshop of the Northern Corridor Member States for the Development of Naivasha Land organized by the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA), Transport Principal Secretary Mohamed Daghar said the ministry is working with the foreign and diaspora affairs to ensure countries begin mobilizing resources to develop the land.
“We are working together with the ministry of foreign and diaspora affairs to ensure all titles are issued as per the directive that was issued to the member states that use the Mombasa Port, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and DRC in Naivasha ICD,” said Daghar.
Kenya is keen on the development of the Naivasha Inland Container Terminal not only to ease cargo congestion at the port of Mombasa, but to increase investment to the special economic zone.
Since allocation of parcels of land to South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi to develop their cargo handling facilities and warehouses, progress has lagged behind due to yet to be concluded transfer of the parcels of land to the countries.
“The Naivasha ICD not the only inland container depot that we have in the country. We have one in Nairobi, Naivasha and we want to develop another one in Lamu. Creation of container depots is very good for us in the movement of goods and services,” he added.
Development of the Naivasha ICD is expected to help Kenya and regional countries efficiently handle imports and exports with the construction on cargo handling facilities, customs and warehouses.
“We are looking at it as a logistics base for other countries but from the perspective of Kenya it will be a special economic zone because we expect the warehouses and transport facilities to be developed. But we would also like to use it as a consolidation point for exports so we want to stimulate production around Naivasha even consolidation of cargo for export because as we speak less than 30pc of container throughput is exports and we want to promote exports and make our trade balance favourable especially for the region,” stated John Deng, NCTTCA Executive Director.
NCTTCA further backs the issuance of title to ensure countries mobilize enough resources regionally to develop their own facilities.
To further support cargo movement through the northern corridor, Daghar said Kenya is keen on extending the Standard Gauge Railway to Kisumu from Naivasha under Phase 2B covering 262km with a 8.9km line to Kisumu Port and Kisumu to Malaba covering 106km.
Additionally, the government now expects construction of berth 1 of the Dongo Kundu SEZ to begin anytime soon following the signing of the contract with a Japanese company.
