By Tajeu Shadrack Nkapapa
Prime Cabinet Secretary and CS for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Hon. Musalia Mudavadi, on Tuesday 23rd July 2024 dismissed reports that the government has plans underway to sell Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to a foreign company.
In the previous weeks, the information has been circulating in all media platforms on the alleged leasing of JKIA to a private company in India.
The Kisii Senator says in a media interview that he has received information from a Kenyan working abroad who informed him that JKIA is already being handed over to foreign investors for management in the next 30 years.
The Prime Cabinet Secretary on Tuesday morning appeared before the National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee and made clarifications about the status of JKIA.
He said that the sale of a government strategic asset like the Airport requires public participation and approval from the National Assembly and has zero possibility of doing it without the knowledge of the citizens of Kenya.
“The airport is not on sale. This is a public asset, it is a strategic asset. And if it was going to be sold, you can only do it after a full public process that parliament endorses. So anybody who is giving the impression that Jomo Kenyatta Airport has been sold is not being factual, it is not true,” Mudavadi said in Parliament.
Mr. Mudavadi emphasized that the Kenya Airport Authority has plans to modernize it and construct a new terminal.
“What we will need to appreciate is that we will need to modernize our Airport and that means Investment, we have to take place in the Airport and we need a new terminal,” he stated.
“The Kenya Airport Authority (KAA) must look at its investment programme very very carefully, make sure that everything is transparent, so that during the expansion process of the second terminal, if it’s under PP arrangement, let it be done properly, thoroughly through the legal process so that everybody knows what is going on,” he added.
“I want to assure Kenyans that Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is not Up for Sale,” he assured.
The Information about the sale of JKIA has angered the anti-government protesters who alerted them to take the protest to the Airport on what they termed as “OccupyJKIA” similar to the historic “OccupyParliament” that took place on 25th June 2024.