Mombasa,KENYA:Residents of Mtongwe in Likoni Mombasa county on Thursday staged demonstrations along the Mtongwe-Likoni road protesting the withdrawal of the Mtongwe ferry.
The demonstrators said the vessel was withdrawn after the August election, arguing that it had been installed only to woo the residents to vote for the Jubilee government.
They also accused some Kenya ferry officials of conflict of interest alleginging that most of them own matatu’s which ply the Mtongwe- Likoni route hence they could be sabotaging the services to protect their interests.
“The relaunch of Mtongwe ferry was political, how comes that after the August elections it stopped working as it used to? We demand answers,said one of the protesters who identified himself as Mr Bakarai.
Mv Likoni which has been operating at the Mtongwe channel has so far been withdrawn and redeployed at the busy Likoni channel.
When reached for comment, Kenya ferry public relations officer Francis Mugomati said they had withdrawn the Mtongwe ferry services as two ferries Mv Kwale and Mv Kilindini are under maintenance .
He however stated that the two vessels would soon be redeployed to the channel.
The Mtongwe vessel which was relaunched by president Kenyatta in March in a bid to ease congestion at the Likoni crossing channel has however being withdrawn several times since it was relaunched forcing Mtongwe users to use the Likoni channel.