Tobin Jones | AFP | Getty Images
A man reads a newspaper outside the central market in Mombasa, Kenya, on August 10, 2017, as the country waits for the final results from the general election.
Kenya’s election re-run last week caused a decline in deliveries from the country’s shipping hub of Mombasa, a state-run body in charge of the nation’s ports has reported.
Cargo deliveries from Mombasa by road declined by just over 10 percent in the week before October 25, a day before the country’s presidential election re-run, the Kenya Ports Authority said in a statement.
“This was attributed to the withdrawal of trucks from the road by owners in fear of insecurity … during the polls,” the Kenya Ports Authority wrote. The number of train deliveries, as well as the return of empty containers to the port, also fell.
Political instability in Kenya is testing the country’s resilient economic fundamentals. Last week, the country staged a re-run of August’s disputed presidential election, with incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta once again declared winner with 98 percent of the vote.
Kenyatta’s main political rival Raila Odinga boycotted the election altogether, and in a speech Tuesday encouraged his supporters to stage “economic boycotts, peaceful procession, picketing and other legitimate forms of protest.”
“The worst outcome for business would be if rioting in Mombasa, the busiest port in East Africa, prevents goods from being exported,” said a note by Ben Payton, head of Africa research at consultancy firm Verisk Maplecroft.
