Recruitment and placement
Maingate Shipping recruits and places seafarers from Kenya for owners and managers who need officers, ratings, cadets and catering crew. Kenya trains deck and engine officers at Bandari Maritime Academy and the Jomo Kenyatta University maritime programmes, and has a large pool of ratings with experience on bulk carriers, tankers, cruise ships, fishing vessels and offshore craft.
Every seafarer we present comes with a checked file: certificates verified against the issuing authority, sea service confirmed, medical certificate current, and references called. Owners receive a short-listed set of candidates with the file, not a name and a phone number.
Deck and engine officers with unlimited and near-coastal certificates, able seamen and ordinary seamen, motormen and oilers, cooks and stewards, deck and engine cadets, and specialist ratings for fishing vessels and offshore supply craft. Cruise and hotel staff are placed through the same desk when a cruise operator asks.
The owner sends the rank, vessel type, trading area, contract length and wage scale. We screen the pool, verify documents, arrange the medical, brief the seafarer on the vessel and the owner's rules, and prepare the employment agreement. Travel to the joining port is booked once the vessel's schedule is firm, and the seafarer is met and handed over to the joining agent.
Recruitment and placement of seafarers is regulated under the Maritime Labour Convention and by the Kenya Maritime Authority. No seafarer pays a fee to be placed, wages and contract terms are set out in writing before joining, and complaints are recorded and answered. Owners can request our compliance file at any time.
Maingate Shipping Limited is a ship agency, crew management and ship brokerage company based at Express Building on Moi Avenue in Mombasa, Kenya, serving vessels at Kenyan ports since 2020 and coordinating port calls across Africa through its agency line. The company attends bulk carriers, tankers, container ships, car carriers, cruise ships, fishing, offshore and naval vessels at Mombasa and Lamu, places Kenyan seafarers with owners worldwide, and fixes dry bulk, tanker and project tonnage for East African cargoes.
One instruction to the desk covers the port call, the crew, the fuel and the account, and the same office answers the master and the principal at any hour.
Kenyan officers hold STCW certificates of competency issued by the Kenya Maritime Authority, with endorsements from flag states obtained through the flag's recognition process. We arrange the endorsement application when the owner confirms the flag.
For common ranks the desk can usually present a screened short list within a few working days; specialist ranks take longer because we verify every document before a name goes forward.
Yes. Kenyan seafarers join vessels in Asia, Europe, the Gulf and the Americas. We arrange visas, travel and the joining handover with the agent at the joining port.
Nominate Maingate Shipping and the answer comes from Mombasa with a proforma DA attached.
Related desks on the same instruction line.
Also on maingateshipping.com: Ship agency at Mombasa · Ship agency and charter brokers · Ship brokerage · About Maingate · Contact
Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091