SPEECH BY H.E. HON. UHURU KENYATTA, C.G.H., PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE DEFENCE FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE SIGNING CEREMONY OF THE MOMBASA PORT COMMUNITY CHARTER, LAUNCH OFKPA STRATEGIC PLAN AND THE CHARTER PERFORMANCE DAHSBOARD, KENYA PORTS AUTHORITY, MOMBASA, 30TH JUNE, 2014

Distinguished Guests,Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to join you all in this ancient city, as we launch the first Mombasa port community charter.

Ladies and Gentlemen,Mombasa is more than a millennium old. As long ago as the fourteenth century, it was a busy trading hub.

Then, as now, it was a vital gateway, linking the lands of East and Central Africa with the rest of the world. It was the key port in this part of the world.

But its rapid growth in recent years – traffic rising at a steady 7% annually – has exerted pressure on our infrastructure. If Mombasa is to hold its place as the preeminent port in the region, we must work together to improve its capacity and efficiency.

The dredging of the channel to accommodate large post-Panamax vessels, the construction of additional berths, and the construction of the 2nd container terminal that will double the capacity of this port once completed in 2016 – all these show our intent and commitment, not only to preserving Mombasa’s hard-earned pre-eminence but also to securing Kenya’s proper place as the region’s centre.

But now, Ladies and Gentlemen, we know that new infrastructure alone will not deliver the efficiency we desire in the port and in the northern corridor. It is not enough to expand and improve infrastructure:we must also look at our policies, processes and systems with a fresh eye, to see what we can improve, and what we must discard.

That is why, in June last year, I issued a directive ordering the streamlining of port operations. A chief aim of that directive was to cut transit time from Mombasa to Malaba from 18 days to 5.

It was encouraging to see that we reached that target in very little time, and with almost no new investment. This is a lesson – if a lesson were needed – that dedicated management and good systems and processes are as important as the infrastructure itself.

Now, following that encouraging precedent, stakeholders in the port, with the support of Trademark East Africa, have come together and prepared a port Charter to consolidate the gains of that earlier directive.

The Charter commits parties both from public and private sectors to measures that will increase the efficiency of the port and the Northern Corridor. It also sets out, in clear detail, initiatives that we expect to play a substantial part in unlocking the trade potential of the whole of our region.

Let me mention some of them, if only in passing. The charter commits to the reduction of turnaround

times in the northern corridor; the integration of all port community members’ systems into the Kenya National Electronic Single Window System; and the achievement of 70% cargo output routed through the green channel by 2016.

The achievement here is not simply putting these ambitious goals on paper. Rather, in bringing stakeholders to these mutual commitments, we are establishing a culture of performance, measured against agreed goals and timelines.

The first, vital, step in supporting the charter, and one that I will take today, is to make certain that every public institution party to the charter is alive to its obligations, and directed to perform them.

I hereby direct every public institution that subscribes to the Charter to determine its obligations under this agreement, and begin to meet them. The process will include incorporating their obligations in the Charter within the annual performance contracting process for effective evaluation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,As I said earlier, the port of Mombasa joins our lands to the world. So we can ask our foreign friends and partners to assist us in improving the port. If they do, the success of the initiatives we launch today will be as much theirs as it is ours.

I have spoken of what government will do. I have invited our foreign partners and friends to help us. I have not forgotten the private sector parties to this charter. They too have shown foresight in joining this initiative. It remains only to urge them to play their part.

Ladies and Gentlemen,Too often in the past, ambitious initiatives of this kind have been launched, only to fade away for lack of monitoring. We cannot let that happen here. We cannot let the Charter we launch today become yet another document, gathering dust deep in a forgotten office. I wish, therefore, to ask Trademark East Africa to make available, preferably online, a quarterly report that gives us hard data on the progress of the initiative. We must – and we will – hold each other accountable.

Ladies and Gentlemen,Looking ahead let me say that my government remains as dedicated as it ever was to the development of the second economic corridor in the region – the set of projects that we call LAPSSET. Indeed, we will begin construction of the first three berths in Lamu this year.

Let me thank the partners, both foreign and domestic, who shared our vision, and came to our aid, at the inception of the project. Their support is warmly appreciated, and I urge them to maintain it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,It is now my pleasure to declare the Mombasa Port Community Charter officially launched.

Mungu awabariki na awalinde nyote.