Kenyan maritime authorities detain CCCC vessel

Information received from sources in Mombasa appears to confirm that a dredger is being detained by Kenyan maritime authorities.

It has been reported that the dredger has illegally taken out sand from the award-winning Diani beaches last week, and has been detained in port by maritime authorities for further investigation.

Under pressure by the public, especially after a whirlwind social media campaign, the Kenya Port Authority (KPA), which initially denied any knowledge of the vessels’ existence and activities, also admitted that the ship was known and had been under their contract.

The admission and confirmation that KPA had purportedly given the ship permission to “test” might also end the authority of KPA in court, as environmentalists have already vowed to “sue the daylights out of them.”

The China Communications Construction Company, incidentally blacklisted by the World Bank over a range of similar and other allegations up to January 2017, is up to its neck involved in constructing the new Lamu port and the new Standard Gauge Railway. The shenanigans of the crew last week, which on several occasions extracted sand from the seabed and according to Diani-based diving sources caused damage to the reef, is thought to cause acute embarrassment to both the Kenyan and the Chinese governments.

The ship and owners, now under investigation by Kenyan maritime authorities, have prompted local conservation NGOs to also check if they can be part of a legal case in the public interest to highlight the irresponsible practices of a company which, through the construction contracts it holds, could cause further irreparable damage to many of Kenya’s marine and land biodiversity hotspots.

KPA in a brief statement further confirmed that the dredger has been in Kenyan waters for some three years, and allegations are now surfacing again that it was this ship which was responsible for reef destruction near Shelly Beach when berth 19 was constructed and sand was, again allegedly, illegally extracted.

Environmental officials appear to appreciate the evidence handed to them by south coast sources, including aerial pictures taken, showing the dredger in position, loading sand from the seabed, and causing the water to cloud which reportedly killed many fish in the immediate vicinity.

“If they try to buy their way out of this, they will see us in court with private prosecution. This is a debacle of the highest order even for the Kenyan government because they contracted a company which the World Bank has black listed for many years to come. It raises a lot of questions how such a company will respect our environmental protection laws and what oversight will be needed to prevent similar incidents. The coast line is so long and when that ship is sent to Lamu they can suck out sand anywhere, who is there to control it. I can only thank all those who helped to expose it, and we hope that the crew will be prosecuted and when found guilty jailed and fined and the vessel confiscated.

“Only a few weeks ago, President Kenyatta ordered a drug smuggling ship to be blown up. How about also ordering this environmental crime ship to be treated the same way? We are watching,” added a regular conservation source from Kenya as progressively, over the past few days, added information was dug up on the vessels’ past movements and handed to the relevant authorities. Hotel and other tourism associations have in this case worked hand in hand with hotel owners and business operators along the Diani beaches, and a mechanism is now in place to report any future such incidents immediately and raise the proper alarms.