Govt Asks Kenyans to Submit Proposals for JKIA Expansion

The government has requested Kenyans to submit alternative proposals to aid in the development of the country’s main airport and electrical infrastructure a week after President William Ruto cancelled expansion deals.

Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura, during his weekly press briefing on Friday, November 29, urged Kenyans to bring forward proposals on how best to improve the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and electricity transmission in the country. 

His comments came in the wake of President Ruto’s directive to cancel a deal to build a new power transmission and the end of negotiations for the expansion of the JKIA to be undertaken by the Adani Group.

“We call upon Kenyans to come forward and bring alternatives to energy and airport building and see what we can do because we have to move forward,” he commented.

At the same time, Mwaura reiterated the cancellation of the contentious JKIA-KETRACO deals as he moved to quell any doubts regarding the move by the government.

Mwaura stated that Kenyans should not have doubts regarding the status of the deals, which had caused a great divide amongst the nation and many had called for their cancellation.

“We are calling upon Kenyans to actually know that indeed we have cancelled the Adani contracts. Treasury CS John Mbadi made that very clear in Parliament,” Mwaura stated.

Further, he added that Adani was not involved in the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) that is under the Social Health Authority (SHA). “There are cartels that are seeking to drag Adani everywhere. Adani is not in SHA. Those are just false stories,” he affirmed.

Ruto announced the move to terminate the two deals worth Ksh338 billion during his State of the Nation address on Thursday, November 21.

The cancellation came after Gautam Adani, the founder and CEO of the multibillion-dollar Indian company Adani, along with seven other executives, were indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in New York on November 20 for allegedly bribing Indian government officials. 

According to a report by CNN, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller stated that the bribes were intended to convince the officials to lie to investors and banks in order to raise billions of dollars and obstruct justice.

“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 (approximately Ksh32 billion) million in bribes to Indian government officials. These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors,” she stated.

At the same time, Mwaura moved to drum up support for Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) that birthed the now-cancelled Adani deals. He revealed that plans are underway to tap into PPPs to develop the water sector.

“PPPs are here to stay. That is why we want to deploy them in the water sector so that we do not delay our own progress,” he claimed.