Kenya’s first Railway Marine School is set to open its doors in Kisumu town for admission of new students in May this year.
Director of Railway Training Institute Milly Kizili Otieno, said the Marine school has been constructed at a cost of 470 million shillings grant from the World Bank through the Kenya Transport Sector Support Programme in Conjunction with Kenya Government.
Mrs Otieno made the remarks yesterday after touring the school before holding a stakeholders meeeting to sensitise area residents on the school’s programmes and facilities in readiness for official opening of the school in May this year.
The modern facility is set to offer training programmes geared towards building human capacity in the maritime industry and has capacity to admit 1,000 students.
The establishment of the Marine school comes at a time the National Government has pumped three billion shillings to revamp the Kisumu Port and another 3.8 billion shillings to rehabilitate the Nakuru- Kisumu Railway line.
The school has a swimming pool to train seafarers, standard hostels for 160 students, a hotel and conference facilities with phase two targeting to put up classrooms, libraries and a resource Centre.
The training centre is key in fostering regional integration through training and enhance trade among the East African community countries
“We also target to train students from the region as well and now Kenya will not have to send students to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to train as seafarers,” said the Director.
With the new Maritime Institute, Mrs Otieno said the country will maintain its high ranking at the International Maritime Organisation which is a United Nations specialised Agency with the responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the preservation of Marine life.
The Director exuded confidence that the Nakuru- Kisumu railway line will be operational by April this year, saying it will be a game changer in economic transformation of trade in the region.
by George Kaiga/Sophy Adhiambo
