Kenya fears that it most likely lost billions of shillings since the Mombasa Port's information communications system failed. All operations at the port have come to a halt after the IT breakdown. According to government officials, the system crashed on Wednesday after KRA's failed attempt to get the system upgraded. The halting of services at the port has led to protests among users at Mombasa. The country's Ports Authority Chief Operation Managing Engineer Joseph Atonga blamed the KRA for the stoppage. For his part, the KRA Commissioner General Michael Waweru did admit to the Authority's ICT power system failing. He added that one computer scanner service stopped working at the Nairobi data system headquarters because of the damage. Atonga, however, disagreed saying the problem, which began last week, has worsened in recent days, paralyzing the movement of cargo from the port. Atonga said the problem was “inconveniencing operations because there was no active loading and off-loading of the goods from ships.” “The problem got worse on Wednesday when the Simba and Kamisa system broke down, causing the congestion you are now seeing in the port,” said Atonga as he absolved KPA of any blame. BM
