Determinants Of Effective Control Of Major Accidents in the Port of Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract

Mombasa port plays a pivotal role in the economic development of East and Central African countries where goods of varying hazards transit the port. Ports are potential sources of accidents such as spills, explosions, fires, toxic fumes among others. This study aimed to show that major accidents at the Kenyan Port Authority harbor in Mombasa, occur due to low attention given by stakeholders in the industry. Moreover, the study identified measures that should enhance effective control and management of accidents in the port areas. The study employed a descriptive survey research design where structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Random sampling was used to identify 248 study participants from a population of 650 workers. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 at 95% confidence interval. Data was subjected to descriptive tests to determine proportions as well as Chi square test and presented using graphs and tables. The port was found to be a multi-stakeholder operations site with 20% of employees being contractors. A high percentage of 94.2% of respondents held the view that safe operations procedures would not help in control of major accidents in the port when jobs needed to be completed faster, showing the underlying poor safety culture levels in the organization. The rates of occupational accidents in Mombasa port were significantly high with 99.5% of the port workers reporting to have witnessed occurrences of accidents. Most of the accidents were related to equipment failure and private trucks and tractors operated by contractors. Training gaps existed and in various contexts where 53.1% of respondents said they had not undergone any training or awareness on prevention of accidents or hazards despite operating in a potentially risky environment. Accidents reported by port workers include crane failure, chemical spillage, fire accidents and explosions. The main container terminal had recorded the highest number of occupational accidents compared to other terminals. There was a significant association between training on accident hazards and improvement on understanding of accident prevention (X2 = 0.029 P= 0.05 DF = 1). Study revealed that training on how to avoid and deal with accidents would help reduce accident occurrence. The cargo facility-related factors variable had a significant association with the occurrence of occupational accidents at Mombasa port were poor equipment maintenance, exceeding of safe working load, lack of equipment standardized replacement policy and inadequate funding towards equipment maintenance. There was no policy or regulation dealing with the control of major accidents that had been implemented. Results also indicated that cargo handling equipment contributed most accidents and fatalities at the port of Mombasa. A total of 11 fatalities were reported between 2016 to 2022 and ten were attributed to cargo handling equipment. There was poor control of contractor operations and the negative perception of contractors by employees made it difficult to enhance safety and prevent major accidents at the port. The risk assessment of operations did not involve the workers who do the job.