How Much is the Likoni Ferry Price?

Well, the question on how much the Likoni ferry price is needs to be clarified: do you want to know the Likoni Ferry charges (which people pay in order to cross) or do you want to know how much the Likoni Ferry vessels cost?

If you want to know how much the Likoni Ferry charges are, here is the answer: Likoni Ferry charges depend on the type of vehicle you are trying to cross with. Motorcycles and small cars using the Likoni Ferry channel are charged much lower amounts of money than, say, buses and heavy trucks. Thus whereas a small car may be able to cross the Likoni ferry channel for as little as Kenya Shillings 150 [the actual figures are updated from time to time], a heavy commercial truck using the same vessel could end up paying more than 1,000 Kenya shillings to cross the channel. They actually have some sort of weighbridge, and what a vehicle is charged to use the channel depends on, among other factors, its total weight (the vehicle’s own weight as well as the payload in it).  The good part of the deal is that pedestrians/people walking on foot are not charged anything for using the Likoni Ferry channel. They get to use the Likoni Ferry for free. At the time of writing this article, there were also advanced works on the Likoni floating bridge at Liwatoni – which was designed to ease congestion on the Likoni Ferries. But it would seem that the Likoni floating bridge is designed for pedestrians and perhaps cyclists alone, meaning that motorists would still need to continue using the Likoni Ferry for the time being: until the Mombasa Gate bridge in Likoni is completed, possibly later in the decade.

If what you want to know is the actual costs of the Likoni Ferry vessels, then the answer would depend on which specific vessel you are making reference to. You have to understand that there are several vessels operating on the Likoni channel, including MV Safari, MV Jambo, MV Kwale, MV Likoni, MV Nyayo and MV Harambee. Vessels like MV Safari and MV Jambo were bought quite recently – during the UhuRuto era -- from Turkey, at a cost running into 2 billions plus (that is, more than US$ 20m dollars). So those are sound vessels, as long as they are taken good care of. For sure, their acquisition had been controversial, and their delivery is said to have been somewhat delayed due to the court cases that were ultimately resolved. But they are modern and quite well designed vessels. The MV Kwale and MV Likoni vessels came during the Mwai Kibaki era, and were bought at considerably lower prices. They have so far served the people using the Likoni channel quite well, their modest sizes notwithstanding. Then there are the MV Nyayo and MV Harambee Likoni vessels – which, even from their names you can tell – came during the Daniel arap Moi era. They are quite massive vessels, but they are said to be ageing. Previously, there was a vessel known as MV Mvita and another one known as MV Pwani, probably from the Jommo Kenyatta era, but those seem to have been retired.