Second Try, Same Secrecy: Publish the Mombasa and Lamu Port Deals Before BiddingSecond Try, Same Secrecy: Publish the Mombasa and Lamu Port Deals Before Bidding

The National Treasury has now given a second approval that lets the Kenya Ports Authority move the first phase of its port programme towards bidding, a package Mwenendo reported is worth about KSh 129.94B ($1B) in private investment. We support private money in Kenya's ports.

We do not support signing away the operation of national gateways on terms Kenyans are only allowed to read after the ink is dry.

The authority and the Treasury's Public Private Partnerships Directorate should publish the feasibility studies and the core deal terms before a single request for proposals goes out, and in any case by 30 November.

Mombasa Berths 11 to 14 and the Missing Papers

The facts are not in dispute. As Mwenendo reported on the Treasury approval, the first phase has three transactions: Mombasa berths 11 to 14, Mombasa Container Terminal 1, and an integrated deal joining the Lamu Container Terminal to the Lamu Special Economic Zone. Roughly KSh 38.98B ($300M) of the investment is pencilled in for the Mombasa berths.

Project documents describe berths 11 to 14 as a 720 metre quay to be dredged from 10.25 metres to 15 metres, tripling yard capacity from about 300,000 to 900,000 containers a year. Container Terminal 1 can already handle 962,000 units. Lamu's first three berths were designed for 1.2 million.

What nobody outside government can see is the part that decides whether Kenya wins or loses: how long each operator keeps the asset, what it pays the authority, who sets the handling charges, what volume it must move, and whether the state has promised to cover any shortfall. Bid deadlines, concession lengths and revenue terms remain unpublished.

The PPP Act Already Demands Disclosure

This is not a request for a favour. The Public Private Partnerships Act says that once the PPP Committee has decided on a project, "the contracting authority shall publish the feasibility studies and project documentation used to evaluate the project". The committee approved these feasibility studies in August. The studies should already be public.

PPP Director General Kefa Seda said in August that the procurement would include the required public disclosures and stakeholder engagement under the law. We take him at his word, and we ask him to keep it now, while disclosure can still change the outcome.

Timing matters because of how the law is built. A person aggrieved by a decision of the Directorate, the Committee or a contracting authority has only seven days to petition. Nobody can challenge, or even sensibly support, a decision whose basis is locked in a drawer. The Act's other publication duty, listing the winning bidder and any public money committed, only applies once the project agreement is signed. That is a notice, not a debate.

A Tender Already Stopped Once in 2023

Kenya has walked this road before and stumbled. In September 2023 the authority advertised a tender for the same berths and terminals. Coastal clergy and the Taireni Association of Mijikenda demanded full disclosure of how the public interest would be protected, and in November 2023 the High Court suspended the earlier tender after the association went to court.

Three years later the same assets are back at the starting line. Secrecy did not speed anything up. It bought a lawsuit, a freeze and lost time.

The Adani affair is the sharper warning. A privately proposed plan to upgrade and run Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was challenged in court and then cancelled by the President in November 2024, after the public learned about it from leaks rather than from the government. Across the border, Tanzania's 2023 port agreement with DP World drew street protests and a court challenge before it was finally signed. Deals made in the dark do not stay there.

The Investor Confidentiality Argument

The strongest case against us is commercial. Bidders guard their pricing, and publishing too much too early could deter serious operators or let rivals game the tender. Supporters of the plan add that the authority cannot easily fund 15 metre dredging and new cranes on its own, and that every month of argument is another month of lost capacity.

We accept part of that. Nobody is asking for bidders' private financial models.

We are asking for the government's own side of the bargain: the studies paid for with public money, the length of each lease, the fee and revenue-share formula, the minimum investment and volume commitments, the rules on who sets tariffs, and any guarantee or contingent liability, meaning a promise the Treasury may have to pay later, attached to these projects.

The PPP Act makes the Treasury set a ceiling for exactly those liabilities. Serious operators bid on published terms at ports all over the world. Only weak deals need to hide.

Mombasa's Cargo Is Every Kenyan's Bill

The stakes reach far beyond the quay. Mombasa handled a record 45.45 million tonnes in 2025, with transit cargo up 19.5%, figures we set out in our argument over KRA's cargo seal switch.

Handling charges at these berths end up inside the price of imported cooking oil, wheat, fertiliser, phones and car parts, and inside the costs of every Ugandan, Rwandan and South Sudanese importer choosing between Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

Port leases are usually measured in decades, long enough to outlast several governments. The authority's managing director also now sits on the KRA board, a reminder that port operations and the public purse are already tied together.

Four Steps Before the First Bid

We therefore call on the Kenya Ports Authority and the PPP Directorate to do four things before any request for proposals is issued, and no later than 30 November 2026:

• Publish the three feasibility studies approved in August, as the PPP Act already requires.
• Publish the core terms each bidder will face: lease length, the fee and revenue-share formula, investment and volume commitments, and who controls tariffs.
• Disclose any government support measure or contingent liability assigned to the three transactions, with its value in shillings.
• Publish a plan for the authority's staff now working these berths, so that dockworkers are not the last to learn their fate.

We also call on the National Assembly's Transport and Infrastructure committee to table the studies and hold one public hearing in Mombasa and one in Lamu before the tender closes.

Private capital can make Mombasa faster and Lamu busier. It will only last if Kenyans can see what they are giving and what they are getting. Publish first, then bid.