Following the recent repeated stalling of the ferries across the Likoni channel, which link the southern mainland with the island of Mombasa, the tourism industry at the Kenyan coast has once more demanded that government immediately embark on constructing a road, which would link the airport of Mombasa and the main highway from Nairobi directly to the south coast.
“Tourism depends on this link; when the ferries fail, tourists cannot reach the airport and miss their flights, and arriving tourists start their holiday with a big disappointment, taking up to half a day to reach their hotels,” said one source to this correspondent, then adding: “Even coast residents are affected – business comes to a standstill, supplies do not reach, students miss classes, workers fail to report on duty! This has been going on for too long, and it is high time government comes to our rescue now and build[s] a reliable road. Even when the new ferries come in a few months, the ferry company will mess that up, too, so our only hope is a road.”
Leading representatives of the coastal tourism industry also reportedly met last week to discuss this issue and also called for a strengthened disaster response team to be established, probably in the light of the present tragedy in Haiti, to be prepared for any sort of accidents connected to industry, port, or aviation and not rely only on foreign assistance should disaster strike.
As seen in the photo, when just one ferry is not working, the other two quickly become overloaded.
