Kenya’s blue economy ambitions rest on the shoulders of its seafarers. From the Port of Mombasa to the high seas, these men and women are the engine of global trade. Yet, a stubborn gap persists between official rhetoric and the lived reality on board. The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC, 2006)—the seafarers’ bill of rights—and its accompanying Maritime Labour Certificate were designed to close that gap. But twelve years after Kenya’s ratification and two years after the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour) Regulations of 2024, the question is no longer whether we have the rules. It is whether we have the will and capacity to enforce them.
The MLC sets clear minimum standards for a life at sea: fair contracts, timely wages, decent accommodation, medical care, adequate rest, and protection against abandonment. For Kenyan-flagged ships over 500 gross tonnage on international voyages, a valid Maritime Labour Certificate, backed by a Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance, is mandatory. The process appears straightforward: shipowners apply to the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA), an inspection follows, and if standards are met, a certificate is issued upon payment of fees. On paper, the system is sound. In practice, the experience of many Kenyan seafarers tells a different story.
Consider the numbers. Kenya’s seafarer register has grown impressively—from roughly 5,000 a few years ago to around 16,000 today. Training capacity at institutions like the Bandari Maritime Academy has expanded. Kenya remains on the International Maritime Organization’s STCW White List, a testament to the international standard of its certificates of competency. Mutual Recognition Agreements with flag states such as Panama, Liberia, Palau, and Jamaica have opened doors to tens of thousands of vessels. The government speaks of deploying tens of thousands more seafarers and capturing a larger share of the global maritime labour market. These are real achievements.
Yet, only about 5,000 of the registered seafarers are actively employed. Cases of unpaid wages, abandonment, and distress continue to surface. In recent months, the Seafarers Union of Kenya has highlighted crews on vessels in Kenyan waters who have gone months without pay. Seafarers have been detained abroad. Recruitment practices still leave room for exploitation. And the Seafarers’ Identity Document (SID)—critical for shore leave, transit, and crew changes—has faced prolonged delays despite repeated announcements of progress. These are not isolated failures; they reveal deep structural weaknesses in enforcement and coordination.
The 2024 Regulations and subsequent tripartite workshops, which produced an Action Plan, represent genuine institutional progress. The inauguration of the Seafarers’ Wages Council was a necessary step toward aligning pay with international benchmarks. KMA’s efforts to license recruitment agencies and warn against unlicensed operators are welcome. But regulations without rigorous inspection, transparent complaint mechanisms, and swift sanctions remain largely aspirational. Global assessments of MLC effectiveness estimate success rates well below 100 percent, with significant variation between jurisdictions. Kenya cannot afford to sit in the weaker half of that spectrum.
The economic stakes are immense. Global shipping faces a projected officer shortage. Countries like the Philippines have turned seafarer labour into a major source of remittances. Kenya’s coastal youth, many of them trained and certified, watch these opportunities slip away while local enforcement lags. Every delayed SID, every unpaid wage case, and every poorly regulated manning agent undermines our credibility with international shipowners and crewing agencies. It also erodes the trust of the very Kenyans the blue economy is meant to empower.
What is required is not more workshops or new regulations. It is execution. KMA must treat Maritime Labour Certificates as living instruments of accountability, not one-time paperwork. Port State and Flag State inspections need consistent resources and political backing. The Wages Council must move from inauguration to active wage-setting and monitoring. SID issuance must be accelerated through genuine inter-agency coordination, not sequential announcements. Licensed recruitment agencies should be subject to continuous verification of their placement agreements with shipowners, as the MLC itself requires. Seafarer organisations must be treated as partners in oversight, not occasional consultees. And government targets for seafarer deployment must be matched with measurable protection metrics—not just numbers registered or trained.
Kenya has the geographic advantage, the training base, and the international standing to become a serious supplier of maritime labour. The MLC and its certificate system provide the necessary framework. Turning that framework into reliable protection and sustainable employment is the real test of our seriousness about the blue economy. Certificates alone will not put food on the table for seafarers’ families or fill Kenya’s foreign exchange accounts. Only consistent, transparent, and courageous enforcement will.
The ships are sailing. The question is whether Kenya’s seafarers will sail with them under conditions worthy of a nation that claims to lead in the Western Indian Ocean.
Mr. Mwangura is a maritime safety and security analyst and a former Secretary General of the Seafarers Union of Kenya.