Explainer — What Mombasa’s port waiting times measure

Saturday 7th November 2026

By inAfrika Newsroom

A ship can leave the Port of Mombasa while containers it unloaded are still in the terminal. The Northern Corridor Transport Observatory tracks those movements with separate clocks. One measures how long a vessel waits for a berth, another tracks its full visit, and a third measures how long imported containers stay in the port.

Vessel waiting time measures the wait before a ship reaches its berth. Turnaround starts when the ship enters the port area at the fairway buoy, a marker in the approach channel, and ends when the ship departs. It includes the wait for a berth and the time the vessel spends in port.

The observatory’s January–March 2026 report puts Mombasa’s average wait before berthing at 14.3 hours and average vessel turnaround at about 53 hours. The report uses Kenya Ports Authority data. The corridor charter’s targets cited in that report were 12 hours for waiting and 72 hours for turnaround.

The container dwell clock starts when an import box is unloaded and stops when it leaves the port. Customs clearance and arranging onward transport can take place during that period. The report excludes consignments held for more than 21 days for compliance or legal reasons, so those long holds sit outside the reported average.

Average import container dwell was 69 hours in the first quarter, against a charter target of 72 hours. That figure can exceed the average ship turnaround even when ships move promptly, because the two measures follow different movements and start at different points. A truck or rail journey after the container leaves the port falls outside that dwell measure.

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