Mohammed Hersi . A hotelier passionate about Tourism & Governance in Africa

#WhyILoveKenya ; A lot has been reported and said about the Kenya Ferry Services in Mombasa crossing the ever busy Likoni channel . As a tourism player and chair of Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association we take very keen interest on what happens there. Many of you never use the ferry on foot so you do not know what progress they have made over the past of couple of months. on Sunday I took the liberty to visit them and I noticed quite a number of positive developments that is never reported. The only news is about a ferry stalling or about an accident . I have also seen criticism that the ferry team do not screen people which is NOT true. They now have elaborate screening process just like any international airport with proper screening machines. Pictures don’t lie so I am also sharing the images. When I engaged them they were happy to give me a few mind boggling facts. On daily basis average passengers 300,000 and 4 to 5000 vehicles. They are among the highest in the world per annum ferry operator with s figure of 108m using this service . They are now working on vehicle scanners, trying to get the security ministry to undertake that, if there is one help we can give them is to push for Internal security to undertake that like yesterday . They also have a dedicated police station under a commander, Ferry Police Station fully gazzeted. They built the unit plus a cell!!!. I thought it is good something positive about the ferry and it will also help us all to separate facts from myths. I agree challenges are many and they promised me that once inside the ferry they will also have a strict pedestrians movement Eg No pedestrian should be in the vehicles area etc. Pedestrians will not be allowed to disembark until vehicles exit but many times crowd control becomes a challenge but rest assured they have all been screened with their bags etc Let us appreciate this as we help them improve this service until the day the South coast bypass happens. Please share far & wide.‪#‎KeepCalmVisitKenya #KeepCalmVisitMombasa