Lamu,KENYA:The national government has pledged full commitment towards the completion and implementation of the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport corridor project-Lapsset.
This came to during president Uhuru Kenyatta’s impromptu visit to Lamu county on Wednesday afternoon where he toured and inspected work progress at the port site in Kililana,Lamu West.
The Lapsset is a Sh.2.5 Trillion project in its entirety.
During his visit,president Uhuru Kenyatta asked the project board to speed up the project which he termed an economic and trade game changer for Kenya.
The head of state also held a closed door meeting with the project managers and contractors.
Speaking in Lamu on Thursday,Lapsset Project Director General Sylvestre Kasuku said the president’s visit was enough proof of the kind of commitment the government has towards the Lapsset project.
Construction of the first of thr three berths is currently 70% complete and is expected to be done by December this year.
The other two berths will be done by mid 2020.
Kasuku reaveled that the head of state had promised to increase funding and the necessary logistics to ensure the Lapsset is completed in due time so that it can assume operations.
“The president has promised more funding so that we can finalize the project and finish on time.We are working around the clock to ensure we deliver project timeline,”said Kasuku.
This year the national government injected an additional Sh.8.9 Billion into the Lapsset.
The Lapsset project has a total of 32 berths.
Once complete,the project will open up Lamu and Northern Kenya to more trade and industrial ventures.
Planning of the first four resort cities out of the total 9 lying within the Lapsset corridor is already on course.
The four include Lamu,Garissa,Isiolo and Lodwar.
He says the plan is to ensure planning of the first seven cities is done by 2020.
