Kenya inaugurates Mombasa Shipyard

The new Mombasa Shipyard at Mtongwe Naval Base with one of its three lift platforms partially lowered. (State House Kenya)

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta formally opened Mombasa Shipyard, a facility that has been built at the Kenya Navy's main base with the aim of enabling it to maintain its own ships, on 17 December.

In his speech during the televised ceremony held at Mtongwe Naval Base, south of Mombasa, Kenyatta thanked the Kenya Defence Force and its partner Damen for delivering the shipyard on budget and ahead of schedule.

He said the project was a major milestone not only for Kenya's navy and security organisations, but also for his ‘blue water economy' programme to develop the country's maritime sector as it will also be able to build, refit, and repair civilian vessels.

The new shipyard is operated by Kenya Shipyards Ltd (KSL), which is owned by the Ministry of Defence and has a second yard at Kisumu on Lake Victoria that was opened in May.

KSL released photographs on 29 October showing that the navy's large patrol vessel KNS Shupava , which was built in Spain and delivered in 1997, had already been lifted out of the water at Mombasa Shipyard for its mid-life refit. The refit of its sister ship KNS Shujaa was completed by Damen in the Netherlands in 2018.

“The refitting of Kenya Navy Ship Shupava