Nairobi — The Port of Mombasa registered an annual growth of 6.2 percent of total cargo throughput, from 33.88 million tons handled in 2022 to 35.98 million tons in 2023.

The KPA Annual Review and Bulletin of Statistics data released by the Authority indicated a positive performance in all major sectors of the port.

Container traffic recorded 1.62 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2023, compared with 1.45 million TEUs handled in 2022, posing a growth of 11.9 percent.

According to Ports Managing Director Captain William Ruto, containerized cargo accounted for 50.4 percent of the port's total cargo throughput.

"The Port of Mombasa posted a growth of 2.08 million metric tons in the total cargo throughput handled which is equivalent to a 6.1 percent increase in 2023 compared to 2022," said Captain Ruto KPA, Managing Director.

The Port of Lamu handled a total cargo throughput of 37,576 MT in 2023, compared to 6,539 MT realized in 2022.

Kisumu Port performance also improved significantly by 119 percent, recording 127,745 MT of cargo in 2023, a rise from 58,290 MT in 2022.

The steady growth was attributed to the positive growth of the regional economies.

Similarly, transit traffic posed a significant growth of 11.5 percent to record 11.41 million tons in 2023, up from 10.23 million tons gained in 2022.

The data also mapped out South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's performance, with throughput increasing by 50 percent and 56.1 percent, respectively, in 2023 as compared to the same period in 2022.