The Liwatoni fish landing project in Mombasa County, Kenya is set to be completed by October. This is according to Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya who said tendering for the construction was advertised and work on the physical infrastructure had started.
The Sh 1.8bn project was earlier dogged by corruption allegations, with ongoing investigations interrupting work. Work stalled for months due to graft allegations. President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the project in November 2018 to harness Kenya’s potential in the blue economy. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has been investigating procurement flaws in the awarding of the billion shilling contract. They suspended all payments related to the project pending the outcome of the scrutiny.
Increase fish production
“Construction of the fish landing site is ongoing, there were a few challenges, which we have addressed. Opening of the tender was done on Thursday. There was a re-tendering to pick somebody who will install the machines. But the building of the physical infrastructure has been ongoing,” said Silas Tiren (Moiben), the chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee on Agriculture chairperson.
The fishing port is intended to increase fish production from the current 146,687 metric tonnes (MT) to more than 350,000MT in the next five years. It has been gazetted as the first fishing port in Kenya to ensure all vessels have a place to store their fish. Daniels Outlets Ltd was awarded the tender to build the facility. Once completed, fishing vessels operating in Kenya’s territorial waters will be required to land their catch at the facility.
[…] Source link […]
Comments are closed.