Adani deal: CS Chirchir explains why plan to lease JKIA was not advertised

Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir was on Thursday tasked to explain why the government did not openly express its interest in seeking an investor to develop the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

This despite a June 2023 pronunciation by Chirchir’s predecessor in the ministry, Kipchumba Murkomen, that the State was set to advertise a request for expression of interest to build the airport under a Privately Initiated Proposal (PIP)model.

However, according to CS Chirchir, who spoke on Citizen TV’s ‘Tonight’ show on Thursday night, it is not necessary to advertise privately initiated proposals, as an individual or organization simply needs to identify a need in government and present what they can do about it.

He further went on to note that all PIPs are taken through a 20-stage process before being approved or rejected by government.

“For privately initiated proposals you don’t advertise, I can look for an opportunity based on where I think the government needs support and privately initiate a proposal. That proposal then goes through the due process, and if the government deems it fit and it goes through the due approval process in 20 stages, then it becomes a project,” he stated.

The CS was also put to task to explain how a proposal by Indian conglomerate Adani Group was received in March 2024, despite the Cabinet only approving the plan to lease JKIA in a despatch released on June 11, 2024.

“It’s not a secret that we’ve been seeking to build an airport in Kenya for a long time. Yes, we’ve been trying to do it under the government fiscal headroom, but for a USD 2 billion investment, and the kind of debt that is sitting on government balance sheet today, we’re unable to accommodate those kind of projects,” he said.

“So we’ve done a feasibility study, we’ve sought to build an airport on government investment, and we tried to initiate a greenfield from as early as 2012/2013. Unfortunately, we don’t have an airport to date.”

CS Chirchir went ahead to note that, so far, the government has only received a proposal to develop the airport from the Adani Group, which he revealed is at the 13th out of 20 stages needed for final approval.