Hope for lakeside counties as Kisumu launches cargo flight
Kepher Otieno
Fourteen counties around Lake Victoria and its environs have a reason to smile as new facilities meant to open the region’s economic potential come on stream.
A new cargo terminal at the Kisumu International Airport (KIA) comes hot on the heels of the upgraded railway line which connects to the recently refurbished Sh3 billion Kisumu port.
The airport’s first dedicated domestic air cargo terminal started operations on Saturday and is expected to improve the trade and logistics profile of the Lake Region Economic Bloc (Lreb) member counties.
Counties that constitute the bloc are Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Kisii, Kisumu, Migori, Nyamira, Siaya,Trans Nzoia, Kericho, Bomet, Nandi and Vihiga.
Kisumu Governor Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o said the new cargo terminal is expected to be the base for the Lakeside region and will no doubt improve the supplies, value chain of e-commerce, and allied industries.
Nyong’o said the cargo unit is a boon to lakeside air and cargo transport and aims to establish KIA as a global and regional logistics hub given that it is faster and more efficient means of transport.
Types of commodities
“The new cargo terminal at KIA will also allow service providers to import and export different types of commodities as well as export perishable goods such as fruit, vegetables, and spices to European markets,” he said.
He spoke as Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) Managing director Alex Gitari disclosed that the new KIA cargo terminal is capable of handling general, perishable and all other categories of goods.
Gitari in a speech conveyed by Acting General Manager Marketing and Business Development, Jack Bwana, said the fresh produce from Nyanza and Lake region counties will plug KIA into the global supplies value chain.
With the launch of the inaugural cargo flight, Kenya Airways CEO, Allan Kilavuka, disclosed that they aim at exporting six tonnes on a daily basis translating to 42 tonnes a week.
“Once this picks up, KAA will bring fully-fledged freighter to ease loading and offloading of cargos,” said Gitari during the launch of the first fresh produce for export at the Kisumu international airport apron.
The new cargo project is one notable flagship achievement for KIA’s 2022 cargo flight transformation strategy driven by the handshake between ODM leader Raila Odinga and the President.
The authority came up with the air cargo strategy 2019-2023 whose goal is to improve its cargo handling capacity.
The proposal to convert the old passenger terminal building at the airport to a cargo terminal was long pending, with many traders and Lreb leaders calling on the KAA to construct a cargo unit at KIA.
Before the launch, fish and flowers for export from the region have been transported to Nairobi by road.
An exporter, Singh Sokhi, said this had resulted in heavy losses in terms of wastage and transportation cost.
“Now we are happy to see the cargo unit established and a cargo flight launched,’’ he told Business hub. Sokhi is one of the inaugural exporters who tested the services of the new cargo unit by transporting at least 1.2 tonnes of chilli to the United Kingdom (UK) market. He grows chili in Gem, Siaya County for export.
Previously, he has been using road transport to link to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi for the Indian Restaurants markets with a passionate love for fresh chillis from Kenya.
“This was costly for us,’’ he explained. But he is not alone. Thousands of fish and fruit farmers are eyeing the European Union (EU) market at will and are gearing up to break through the export market.
European market
Clementine Oraro from Nyahera village promised to grow french beans to tap into the European market.
Wycliffe Oparanya, LREB chair and Kakamega governor underscored the need to rethink agricultural policies and smallholder farmers’ incentives by moving from conventional subsistence farming to commercial farming to reduce poverty and hunger and to increase household income per capita.
“We want all the county government that is within Lreb to come up with more coherent agricultural policies and to increase budgetary allocation toward financing agriculture and mitigating climate change,” he said.
