Shortly after the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) was reported to be raining due to the ongoing heavy down pours, the Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has defended his ministry by shifting the blame to the former regime orchestrated by Uhuru Kenyatta.
In his remarks, the CS said that the leaking roof at JKIA was as a result of poor workmanship by the contractor and engineers who were doing renovations at terminal 1C and 1 E in the previous government of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Murkomen speaking from Diani, Kwale county while inspecting the expansion of Diani airport explained that the renovations would be done according to the required standards and that the maintained engineers and contractor overseeing the renovation will have to explain why they did the shoddy work.
“They will have to explain the scope of work that was used in the renovations that when there is heavy rainfall, there must be a leakage,” he said.
The Cabinet Secretary has also noted that the roof has been temporarily repaired to avert leakage and that a new contractor will be awarded to construct a new terminal in the greenfield area at the airport.
The contract at greenfield will be a private-public partnership which is set to commence in January 2024.
“we already have the feasibility study and the president has said we have to deliver a complete new Airport by 2027,” Murkomen said.
Also touching on the power outage that has inconvenienced many at the airport, the CS said that the government had already fixed the outage challenge by installing a stand-by generator but still, there was a hiccup on interchange time where the generator is taking 20 minutes. He however promised that they are working to ensure that the time is reduced to 30 seconds.
Kenyans have blazed the CS saying it is time they stop blaming Uhuru Kenyatta and his regime for his mistakes and fix the messes with Others noting that leaders in the current government were also part of the regime and if it failed, they were also part of the mess.