By: OrePulse

Kenya's National Treasury has set out an investment programme worth nearly $1.2 billion to bring private operators into the ports of Mombasa and Lamu, as part of a broader plan to overhaul port operations under a landlord model. The programme is split into two concession packages covering specific terminals, berths and inland depots, with the first now cleared to proceed to competitive procurement.

The first concession package is valued at 79.69 billion Kenyan shillings, or about $615 million, with the Kenya Ports Authority contributing a further 7.79 billion shillings, or about $60 million, alongside private investors. That package covers Mombasa berths 11 to 14, Mombasa Container Terminal 1, Lamu Container Terminal berths 1 to 3, and the adjoining Lamu Special Economic Zone.

Feasibility studies for the first package have been approved, allowing the Kenya Ports Authority to begin a competitive procurement process to select private operators. No concession awards have been made so far, and the authority has not named any prospective bidders.

A second package, estimated at about 80 billion shillings and still being prepared, would extend the programme to additional container and general cargo terminals at Mombasa, Mbaraki Wharf, and inland container depots at Embakasi and Naivasha. Combined, the Treasury expects the two packages to draw about 151.9 billion shillings in private investment. Unlike the first package, the second has not yet completed feasibility studies, and no procurement timeline has been announced.

The inland container depots at Embakasi, near Nairobi, and Naivasha are used to move containerized cargo away from the coast for customs clearance and onward distribution, reducing the volume of boxes held at the ports themselves. Including them in the second package would extend the landlord-model concession structure beyond the two ports to parts of Kenya's inland logistics network.

Under the landlord port model described in the programme, the Kenya Ports Authority would retain ownership of port land and infrastructure along with regulatory oversight, while private operators would fund equipment, terminal infrastructure and day-to-day operations under concession agreements. The model separates the authority's role as owner and regulator from the commercial operation of individual terminals, which would be run by the concession-holders selected through the procurement process.

The arrangement is intended to bring private capital and operating expertise to specific berths and depots, rather than transferring the ports as a whole to private ownership.

Officials said redeveloping Mombasa berths 11 to 14 could raise the terminal's annual container-handling capacity from about 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, to 900,000 TEUs, with dredging planned to allow larger vessels to call at the port. At Lamu, the first three berths covered by the initial package have a combined design capacity of 1.2 million TEUs.

The programme covers two of Kenya's main maritime gateways. Mombasa has long served as East Africa's principal container port, handling cargo bound for Kenya and neighboring landlocked countries, while Lamu is being developed as a newer deep-water port and the maritime terminus of Kenya's broader Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor infrastructure programme.

The Treasury's announcement did not set a timeline for completing the procurement process or for private operators to begin running the newly concessioned terminals. It also did not specify which specific capacity upgrades, beyond the Mombasa berths 11-14 redevelopment, would depend on the as-yet-unprepared second package, nor did it name the terminal operators expected to bid once procurement opens.

The Treasury's outline sets out specific financial and capacity targets for the programme, covering both the scale of planned private investment and the individual terminals and depots involved. Those targets distinguish between the two packages' current status: the first has cleared feasibility studies and can proceed to procurement, while the second remains under preparation with its scope and timeline yet to be finalized.