JKIA not on sale, says Mudavadi

By Peter Ochieng

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has responded to claims linking President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza admiration to ‘intentions of selling’ the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to foreign investors.

Addressing members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee in the National Assembly on Monday, Mudavadi said that sale of such a high-value asset can only be done after public memoranda and approval by Parliament.

“The airport is not on sale. This is a public asset, a strategic asset. If it was going to be sold, you can only do it after a full public process that parliament endorses,” said Mudavadi, who doubles up as the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs.

Instead, Mudavadi said, there are plans to modernise the airport and build a new terminal. “The Kenya Airport Authority (KAA) must look at its investment program very carefully, to make sure that everything is transparent. So that during the expansion process of the second terminal, let it be done through the legal process so that everybody knows what is going on.”

His statement came on the eve of Kenyan youth, popularly known as Gen-Zs returning to the streets today for another round of demonstrations against President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza administration.

They are calling for ‘occupation’ of key installations including JKIA, on the backdrop of reports that Ruto’s administration has handed the airport’s management to unnamed foreign investors, for 30 years.

Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka, appearing on Citizen TV Day Break show on Tuesday morning stated that the ‘JKIA deal’ is bad for the country.

“We are signing off our airport to be run by a private company for 30 years and after the contract expires, they will keep the equity of our airport at the rate of 18 per cent. Why would anyone sign such an agreement?” posed the Senator. The Senator said he had got the information from an unnamed Kenyan whistleblower working in France.