The Star ­ Friday
Date: 24.10.2014
Page 30,31
Article size: 508 cm2
ColumnCM: 112.88
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MARINERS SAIL TO EGYPT OVER
KENYA'S LACK OF TRAINING SHIP
BY CHARLES MGHENYI
Despite having its own port, which
serves the East and Central
African countries, Kenya does not
have a state­owned ship ro train
seafarers on maritime piloting and
engineering.
A number of colleges in the country among
them Bandari college in Mombasa, Jomo
Kenyatta University of Technology and the
Technical University of Mombasa, have been
forced to offer basic maritime studies.
Students are forced to ttavel to Egypt
and other developed countries to acquire
the advanced training like ship piloting and
engineering.
Kenya has few marine pilots and among
them is the only female pilot, Elizabeth
Makami, who successfully completed her
five­year intensive marine piloting course in
Alexandria, Egypt.
The 25­year­old is among the few Kenyans
who have travelled outside the country to
acquire maritime training.
Kenya Maritime Authority chair Mwalimu
Digore says the country needs to have
its own ship to train students in marine
piloting, engineering and other maritime­
related courses.
KMA this year sponsored 170 seafarers for
the basic course on Standards of Training,
Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers
(STCW) at the Bandari College in Mombasa.
"In order to enhance capacity building
for Kenya seafarers, we sponsored 170 local
seafarers to undergo preliminary Training
STCW at Bandari College," says Digore.
STCW is a training that sets qualification
standards for masters, officers and watch
personnel on seagoing merchanr ships.
It was adopted in 1978 by International
Maritime Organisation (IMO) at conference
in London and entered into force in 1984.
The convention was significantly amended in
1995.
The 1978 STCW convention was the first
to establish basic requirements on training,
certification and watch keeping for seafarers
on an international level.
enough, if Kenyan seafarers will not be
equipped with the marine piloting and
engineering skills that requires complex
practicals on board ships.
Digore says KMA is already in consulrations
with the Ministry of Transport and the
National Treasury on how best they can
acquire their own ship for training purposes.
He says: "As we were growing up, seafaring
was considered as one of the lucrative jobs,
however that has been lost and all Kenyan
seafarers are back home and rendered jobless."
The chair says more and further trainings are
required to keep Kenyans maritime business
competitive and local seafarers to be able to
secure employment in other countries.
14It is our responsibility and mandate to
ensure that this work force goes where it
belongs. Seafarers are crying they want to go
back to the sea," says Digore.
Seafarers Union of Kenya says buying a
training ship is a good move, but ships are
very expensive to acquire, hence it might take
Kenya several years to get one.
SUK secretary general Andrew Mwangura
says the government should currently think
of leasing a ship to ensure maritime studies
and practical continue as they find ways of
acquiring their own ship.
"Government should think of chartering
(maritime word for leasing) a ship because it
is relatively cheaper than to buying one," says
Mwangura.
He said a country can charter a ship for
about 15 years and make good returns from
it because it will be used both for training
and commercial purposes.
Bare­boat charter, he explains, is when a
country leases an empty vessel without staff
and crew onboard and comes to employ its
own crew to operate it.
"You get an empty vessel, come and paint
accotding to your colour preference and
employ your own staff to operate it," he says.
Mwangura adds that the OBO­carriers, a
ship that serves three purposes of carrying
Oil, Bulk and Ores, will be effieienr for
Kenya.
He says Kenya exports and imports oil
Previously, the standards of training,
certification and watch keeping of officers
and ratings were established by individual
governments, usually without teference to
practices in other countries.
KMA says the certificates awarded to the
170 local seafarers will help them secure
employment anywhere in the world because
the certificate is recognised by the IMO.
However, the STCW certificates are not
products, bulks cargo in containers and ore
from mining.
He cites the mining activities in Kwale and
Taita Taveta counties, rhe drilling of oil and
gases that is expected ro start in the northern
part of the county country and the containers
used for export and imports as some of cargo
thar can be transported on OBO­vessel.
He explains that an OBO­carrier can be
used for commercial and training purposes,
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya
The Star ­ Friday
Date: 24.10.2014
Page 30,31
Article size: 508 cm2
ColumnCM: 112.88
AVE: 0.0
which will have more benefirs than buying a
ship which will solely be used for training.
"We can provide employment to our locals
and at the same time train out youth on
board. This will be relatively cheap in even
the cost of maintaining it," notes Mwangura.
He says sea training in Kenya is still not
well developed compared to neighbouring
Tanzania, Egypt and South Attica, which are
well equipped and modernised.
Sea training was first undertaken in Kenya
upon the establishment of the Mombasa
Institute of Muslin. Education (MIOME),
now the Technical University of Mombasa in
1951.
However, the training programme
collapsed under unclear reasons before it was
later revived.
Mwangura says TUM could be one of the
biggest maritime colleges in East and Central
Africa if Kenya lays down good structures to
support the studies.
LEFT BEHIND; Man cycles away as a large cargo ship leaves the Mombasa port.
CHALLENGE: Seafarers Union of Kenya
secretary general Andrew Mwangura last year.
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya