The post-election violence cost the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) more than US$14.9 million in losses, managing director Abdallah Mwaruwa said.
Mwaruwa said although KPA is yet to quantify the exact amount, initial estimates indicated the corporation could have lost between $14.9 million and $29.8 million.
He said the losses emanated from loss of business, using KPA resources to move containers from the terminal to other parts of the port and through waiver of storage charges to importers during the period.
Mwaruwa said the port had maintained a steady upward trend in cargo handling performance despite the crisis experienced as a result of post-election violence. Mwaruwa said last year KPA had operating expenditure of more than $149 million that generated an income of more than $194 million.
Mwaruwa said the port performance of last year went far beyond projections because whereas they had a forecast of reaching 15,379 million tonnes of cargo throughput if performance grew by 6.7 percent. It recorded 15,925 million tonnes, a growth of 10.5 percent.
Mwaruwa said in light of the prevailing circumstances, KPA would prioritise plans to create more container handling capacity at the port in order to meet demands from its clients. He said performance so far had been excellent with the port maintaining an average of 800 units a day since the post-election crisis.
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