Kenyan port security personnel guard an American ship
Mombasa (Business Daily) – Kenyan government has embarked on an air pollution project aimed at ensuring that in the next three years, all ships docking at the port of Mombasa switch off their engines after for more than two hours.
The rule will be implemented once the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) completes a power supply project at berths 11 to 14 as part of a Sh6.8 billion green energy technology initiative Maritime and Shipping principal secretary Nancy Karigithu has said.
The project aimed at ensuring vessels are supplied with electricity in a bid to reduce carbon emissions from diesel engines has been funded by the European Union through Trademark East Africa, is set for completion in 2020.
The shift to an alternative power supply by KPA, Mrs. Karigithu said, will ensure the KPA fully complies with international regulations on energy efficiency for ships by cutting down on harmful diesel emissions.
“As a country, we remain committed to reducing carbon emissions. We must protect the oceans. The rate of pollution we are seeing is too alarming,” she said in a statement. “As a country will have moved a major milestone in terms of environmental protection.”
The PS said the KPA is working with Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre (MTCC) Africa— a global network for energy efficient shipping in improving compliance with international regulations — to implement the project.
“We have already connected power stations and are committed as a port to ensure harmful reduction from ships that dock at the Mombasa port,” KPA managing director Catherine Mturi said Wednesday in a speech read on her behalf by the corporation secretary, Addraya Dena.
