A section of sector players in the maritime industry have called  for concerted efforts by the various maritime administrations in Africa to enable the industry to compete favorably with its counterparts in other continents.

Speaking in Mombasa on Thursday at the sidelines of the 6th conference of the  Association of African Maritime Administration (AAMA) and general assembly,  Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) acting Director General  John Omingo reiterated that there is a need to build a competitive maritime sector in Africa through continuous engagements and sharing of ideas. 

Kenya has been elected as the chair of (AAMA) for the next two years taking over from Nigeria who had taken over from South Africa with a mandate to bring out the opportunities within the blue economy, space and maritime transport industry.

Omingo said the conference also delved on how the African continent can own ships to facilitate transportation of cargo within the continent as well as harnessing opportunities in maritime transport.

 “The income is not coming out very well because we don't own the ships, the ships are done by foreigners and it's time as a continent we put our minds together to own ships to facilitate regional trade and serve the continent well,” said Omingo.

He said with African continental free trade area coming up to open up the borders there is bound to be more trade within borders and increase from the 17 percent trade currently within African countries compared to 70 percent in Europe.

“African share of global trade is about 2 percent which means there is a lot to be done, so administrations come together to rally the continental approach, and coming together you can have a common voice,” Omingo added.

Zamanchonco  Chonco, a member of the AAMA secretariat from South Africa said African countries should create their own solutions to problems affecting their maritime economies by creating the requisite infrastructure.

“We have 54 African countries and it’s important for us to come together and share common ideas on how we can improve within our own maritime administrations,” said Chonco, adding that countries bordering the ocean have rich resources which need to be exploited.

On his part Unathi Sonti the chairperson of the Maritime business chamber based in South Africa said matters of maritime administration should be handled amicably by all countries to ensure a common ground for the region.

Kenya hosted the 6^th conference of the association of African Maritime administration (AAMA) and general assembly for the first time, which brought together delegates from the African continent.

The conference also addressed matters related to blue economy investments, environmental sustainability among others.

National carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ) has unveiled a new inflight dining experience in its Business Class and Economy Class cabins for specific long and medium haul flights.

The revamped in-flight experience includes a new menu as well as a new plating service for business class and tray service for economy class.

The new menu will include meals made from sustainably locally sourced ingredients.

The revamped culinary experience is designed within the airline’s strategy to enhance its customer service delivery and offering across all touch points through its personalised culinary experiences that reflect African authenticity, hospitality, and simplicity.

The new experience has been carefully crafted from customer feedback in mind, years of research and testing to ensure it is responsive to customers' needs and expectations.

Kenya Airways will introduce an improved menu and plating service for business class passengers on four long haul international flights specifically Paris, Amsterdam, New York and London.

The new service and menu will debut on the flight to Paris on 1st May and will be subsequently rolled out to the other three routes within the month.

Speaking on the launch of the new inflightservice, Allan Kilavuka, Kenya Airways Group Chief Executive Officer, and MD stated: “Kenya Airways positions itself as the customer-centric carrier championing the African culture and we are delighted to launch our inflight menu and offering”

Adding “ Our approach is designed to continue to provide guests with a highly personalised and bespoke service tailored to ensure our guests have a memorable culinary experience while travelling with us. We will continue to innovate and improve our services to ensure our customers experience the highest level of customer service.”

Plating service involves the introduction of table service with hot meals plated on board in the galleys by crew trained by 5-star chefs for flights above 7 hours.

The meals will move from the signature rectangular casseroles lined on a rectangular base plate to a proper round dinner plates.

For the economy class international passengers, KQ will introduce the tray service to replace the existing box service and an addition of an extra meal offer of a starter for hot meals and yogurt for breakfast.

The tray service will debut on 3 rd July 2023 on the Dubai and Mumbai flights and will be later rolled out on flights to West Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa and then East Africa.

KQ will also introduce additional seat comfort for long haul flights through a mattress service for the business class seats on flights to Paris,

Former Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho's Director of Communication Mudathir Abdulkareem has landed a new government job.

The soft- spoken communication specialist and strategist has been appointed as  the Chief of Staff, office of the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

Mudathir who once served as the public relations officer at the National museums of Kenya, served as the Deputy Director of Communications at the office of Mombasa governor from 2017 to 2019 before being appointed as the Director in 2019 where he served until 2022.

Mudathir will now undertake various mandates including managing the office of the Permanent Secretary Ummy Bashir. 

Kenyan Premier League side Bandari FC have sacked their head coach Anthony Kimani.

The dockers are said to have reached at the decision after recording a string of poor results..

"Bandari FC wishes to announce that we have parted ways with our head coach, Anthony Kimani, on mutual consent. The Board of Trustees arrived at this decision after thorough deliberations," said a club statement released on Monday.

Adding ""We also want to assure our fans and stakeholders that the club remains steadfast in its commitment to achieving our goals and aspirations as a club,"

The Mombasa based club was at the weekend knocked out of the Mozzart Bet Cup after a  3-0 defeat to AFC Leopards.

 Twahir Muhiddin now takes over the reins for the remainder of the campaign.

Kimani joined Bandari FC in February 2021 as an assistant coach to Rwandese tactician Andre Casa Mbungo before taking over in an acting capacity in February last year after Mbungo was sacked due to  the same reason, a series of poor performance.

The Kenya Ports Authority management led by KPA board chair Benjamin Tayari and Managing Director Captain William Ruto have scaled up efforts to improve port services along the Northern corridor.

The move is aimed at ensuring that the port of Mombasa remains the port of choice in the importation and transportation of cargo in transit markets along the corridor.

During a tour of the Mukwano Industries in Uganda on Wednesday, Chairman Tayari and MD Ruto assured the business community that delays at the Malaba border post will be addressed through automation to ensure cargo is delivered to its destination in good time.

"KPA will also work closely with the Kenyan embassy in Uganda to organize business symposiums with the business community in Uganda to pick emerging issues and effectively find solutions," said Tayari.

In the last visit to the transit markets, the KPA delegation met and engaged customers in Kampala Uganda in a bid to streamline services and address shipping and logistics challenges experienced by the business community.

Earlier on Tuesday, the KPA delegation met with the Burundi Business Community where they urged them to utilize the Naivasha and Nairobi Inland Container Depot for clearance of cargo.

"Non-tariff barriers like weighbridges along the northern corridor, free storage period and port charges are some of the customer concerns that KPA will address to improve efficiency of the Port of Mombasa," Tayari said.

The delegation was in Bujumbura for the ongoing transit stakeholder visit to understand customer concerns and needs.

The delegation later paid a courtesy call on Kenya's High Commissioner to Burundi H.E Daniel Wambura.

Last weekend, the KPA chair was in the Democratic Republic of Congo where he reiterated KPA’s commitment to faster and efficient clearance of cargo destined to DRC when he met the business community in Goma.

He said that the Kenyan government has undertaken to reduce the number of weigh bridges along the northern corridor which have caused delays in cargo movement to the hinterlands and transit markets.

"KPA is also planning to open an office in Goma to efficiently serve the DRC business community in DRC in shipping and transport logistics," he said.  

The Chairman and his delegation including Managing Director Captain William Ruto, Director Emmanuel Kibet, General Manager Corporate Services Edward Kamau and other senior managers earlier on paid a courtesy call on the Governor of North Kivu Lieutenant General Constant Ndima Kogba.

Mombasa Pastors fellowship has condemned the actions on Kilifi pastor, Paul Mackenzie, who is accused of influencing congregants to starve to death.

Led by the Pastors fellowship patron Bishop Tee Nalo, the clerics called on the government to properly investigate the actions, which have led to the loss of more than 100 lives.

"As the leadership of pastors from Coast we disassociate ourselves with Mr.Mckenzi and we condemn his actions of what we see as murder," said Bishop Nalo.

Bishop Nalo further emphasised the need for regulation in churches, saying churches should have umbrella bodies to enable them self-regulate.

"What we stand for is that churches should have umbrella bodies because we advocate for self regulation, churches need to be answerable to a body not operating on t heir own," said Nalo.

Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Nalo said the pastors fellowship distances itself from the actions of Mackenzie saying churches should not be victimized for mistakes committed by an individual.

"We reiterate that whatever happened in Shakahola is an isolated case and it will be very unfortunate if the church is lumped together, we want it treated as an isolated case, there are laws that should be follow," Nalo added.

They say Mackenzi church was not aligned to any umbrella body and that he took advantage of that to conduct ‘evil activities’.

On his part Kwale house of Bishops deputy patron Elphas Goda called for investigation of senior police chiefs including DCI officers to state why they never took a action when the henious acts were being conducted by Mackenzie.

"The questions we are asking ourselves is what happened to the intelligence of this nation, we want to know if there were reports, and what did they do. We want to urge that as he is being investigated, the government should also investigate the police force and DCI to say what they knew and what they did with the information that they got," said Goda.

Kenya Police football club walloped Bandari football club 3-0 to collect three points during a mid-week league match played at Kenya Ports Authority [KPA] Mbaraki Sports Club in Mombasa county.

The visiting team scored their first goal through Cliffton Miheso in the 40th minute of the first half before rains flooded the pitch during the second half.

The disciplined forces recovered from the 1-0 defeat by former league champs Gor Mahia football club by taking advantage of the weather.

The visiting team scored their second goal through Elvis Rupia and Clipton  Kinago sealed the goal scoresheet with a third goal.

The entrance to watch the match, which was also attended by former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko, was free and it had attracted a fair fair crowd.

The visiting team enjoyed playing on the waterproof pitch as the spectators were treated to a circus.  

Home team striker Umar Kachuma tested the visiting team's goalkeeper Patrick  Matasi twice with the home team playing in an unfamiliar territory after rains almost disrupted the match in the second half.

Prior to the mid-week encounter Bandari were held 1-1 by  FC Talanta at the same venue.  

Musician Diamond Platnumz is among famous personalities who have landed jobs in the Tanzanian government.

The 'Zuwena' hitmaker has been appointed as a member of the Tanzania End Malaria Council, by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu.

The appointment was announced by Tanzania's Minister for Health Ummy Mwalimu on Tuesday morning while marking the world Malaria Day.

" As you are aware in every 100 people in Tanzania 75% of them are under the age of 35 and it is this fact that has seen President Samia Suluhu appoint singer Diamond Platnumz  to the End malaria council as the youth representative and ambassador." said Mwalimu.

Added "Diamond has a following of over 15 million on social media and we believe his influence will help us in the campaign against malaria."

Another singer appointed to the council is Shilole who will also be representing her fellow female musicians and youth.

Mwalimu noted "Shilole has a following of over 9 million and we believe she will also be of help to our campaign."

The African Development Bank and ILX Management B.V. (ILX) signed a partnership agreement to scale up investments and spur institutional investor capital mobilization for Sustainable Development Goals and climate-focussed private sector projects in the Bank Group’s regional member countries.

The signing ceremony took place at the offices of ILX Management in the Netherlands capital Amsterdam.

ILX’s investors are the Dutch pension fund asset managers APG Asset Management, (on behalf of ABP and bpfBOUW) and Achmea Investment Management, (on behalf of Pensioenfonds Vervoer), with other Dutch and European pension fund participants in ILX successor funds expected to join in the future.

ILX Fund I provides a scalable $1 billion private credit investment strategy to be deployed across emerging and developing countries, co-financing with global Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) and other DFIs.

The cooperation arrangement enables the African Development Bank to deliver on its ambition to mobilize financial resources from institutional investors to bridge the significant financing gap required to meet the Bank’s High Five priorities: Light up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

This partnership will allow the Bank and ILX to support non-sovereign operations in these key priority sectors. The High 5s are intrinsically linked to the SDGs.

At the same time, the arrangement offers ILX Fund pension fund participants the opportunity to benefit from the AfDB’s long-standing track record of successfully investing in key economic sectors across Africa.

All loan investments are SDG or Climate Finance-focused while offering attractive risk-adjusted returns, combined with robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) safeguarding.

APG Asset Management, the Netherlands’ largest pension provider, together with Achmea Investment Management have committed $1,050 million to Emerging Market private credit fund ILX Fund I, to invest in four key economic sectors; energy access & clean energy, sustainable industry & infrastructure, inclusive finance and food security.

ILX invests in loan participations arranged by Multilateral Development Banks and other leading DFIs in support of their SDG and Climate focused projects across the Emerging Markets and Developing Economies. 

ILX received grant funding in its development phase from: KfW, the German Development Bank, on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

They strongly supported ILX's role in mobilising large scale pension fund capital for the leading MDBs and other DFIs in support of their SDG and climate-finance-related investments in emerging markets.

Hassatou N'Sele, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the African Development Bank Group, commented: “We are very pleased to be partnering with ILX to mobilize institutional capital with a Sustainable Development Goals focus. Our objectives are aligned, and the African Development Bank has a strong track record of structuring and financing projects with a strong development impact.” 

Manfred Schepers, Founder and CEO of ILX, said: “We are delighted to have established this strategic partnership. The launch of this partnership demonstrates AfDB’s strong commitment to engage actively with European pension funds, as a key partner in its mobilization effort and contribution to sustainable growth across the African continent. We look forward to a long-term partnership with AfDB on behalf of our pension fund investors, which are becoming key counterparts to finance SDG and climate-finance projects across the emerging markets.”

Kitty van der Heijden, Director-General for International Cooperation, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands said: “With this agreement, Dutch pension funds, ILX and the African Development Bank join hands to increase investments in the SDG and climate goals on the African continent. A very welcome step, as the challenges in achieving the SDGs, and the need to integrate the global climate commitments in African countries’ development pathways, are more urgent than ever.”