By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- The ultimate goal was to settle political scores with President William Ruto by wrongly portraying him as a leader who have no interest of Kenyans at heart.
- It is noting that the protest took place at a time when the Roads and Transport Committee of Senate had invited Davis Chirchir, the Cabinet Secretary in charge of that document, to appear before it to respond to questions and concerns raised about deal.
- The CS vehemently denied that Adani group had already clinched the contract. The truth of the matter is that we are in the process of subjecting this deal to due diligence as required by the law.
Recently, the Kenya Airport Authority (KAA) workers downed their tools to protest what they termed as ill-advised move by the Government of Kenya to award a multi-billion contract to an Indian Conglomerate, Adani group, for construction and elevation of status of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to the International standard.
The fear of losing their jobs was the main reason why the workers opted to stage a demonstration that paralysed operations at one of the busiest airports in the world for the better part of day.
A good number of travellers missed their flights after being denied access to the facility.
While making the claims of job losses, one would have expected the critics to refer to the specific clause (s) in the final agreements signed by the GoK and Adani group if it existed.
They, however, failed to do this because they knew they were not giving factual information.
So, how did the critics have their way? The KAA workers were gullible and hence would easily buy their card.
The ultimate goal was to settle political scores with President William Ruto by wrongly portraying him as a leader who have no interest of Kenyans at heart.
It is noting that the protest took place at a time when the Roads and Transport Committee of Senate had invited Davis Chirchir, the Cabinet Secretary in charge of that document, to appear before it to respond to questions and concerns raised about deal.
The CS vehemently denied that Adani group had already clinched the contract. The truth of the matter is that we are in the process of subjecting this deal to due diligence as required by the law.
The public participation is one of the critical steps.
After inviting Kenyans to present their views, we shall ensure their inputs are captured in the final agreement before signing it.
Claims by some senators, who were known to be fierce critics of the President, that one government official had received a hefty bribe from CEO of Adani group did not hold any water.
We saw them chickening out after being challenged to prove the allegations.
CS Chirchir has also noted. The KAA workers have no reason to worry.
If Adani clinches this contract, the management will have to follow the rules developed by GoK on this matter. No worker will lose his or her job.
They will remain as employees of KAA but those who will opt to work under new terms of Adani that would be more attractive will be free to do so.
As a writer, I had been following closely this developing story of Adani-JKIA.
Many would agree that much of what we have heard so far is a one-sided story coming from those opposed to the deal.
The critics would want Kenyans to believe that the law was not being followed and further drag the name of President William Ruto.
To them, neither Adani group nor the President have the interest of Kenyans at heart.
The critics would also allege through writing and posting of unverified videos in social media that Adani group had been blacklisted in other countries.
This include their motherland of Indian.
As President Ruto noted during the GenZ protests, when he declined to sign Finance Bill 2024, the channels of communication within the government were not doing enough to rebuttal the unproven claims being peddled around by his critics.
This Financial Bill could not have faced this stiff resistance if we had educated and enlightened the public about its benefit.
Actually, this is reason that informed the President to create the Office of the Government Spokesman.
In so doing, he followed the footsteps of his predecessors.
By now, I would have expected this office to have learn some big lessons but this seems not to be the case if the ongoing anti-Adani group protests is anything to go by.
Why I dispute some of the claims and share with Kenyans the information I have gathered since the opposition on Gov’t-Adani deal started.
First, I have seen a letter written by Adani group stating that it had clinched contract to renovate JKIA to an international standard after a competitive bidding. I am yet to see the critics disapproving this with a documented and proven evidence. All we have heard is rumbling and spewing of all manner of propaganda and rumors in social media.
Secondly in India, there are more than 30 airports. The one that meets international standard in terms of infrastructural development is called Islamabad.
The renovation work of this facility had been done by Adani group and the group is up to to date managing this airport.
So, the rumors swirling around here in Kenya alleging that the company had been blacklisted in India were hollow, ill-advised and baseless.
I heard one of critics posing. Why Adani is only managing one airport in India? You cannot use this as a basis of discrediting the company.
The Adani officials are well-placed to respond. May be this was main airport in india and the administration wanted its status to be elevated.
It is also worth noting that the clips posted on Kenyan social media were those showing the images of alleged opposition activists in India.
Just like Kenyan context, even if we assume the clips were authentic, we know the role of the opposition is to portray the mega projects being undertaken by the government of the day in bad light.
I also saw video clip of alleged a dozen protestors in Australia. The opponents wanted Kenyans to believe they were protesting the decision by authorities there to award a contract to renovate and manage one of the main airports to Adani group. Again, it was hard to authenticate these images. One would have also expected the critics to shed light on whether the deal was revoked or not. They would not do this.
It is worth to note Adani group had been awarded contracts to construct and manage airports in many countries across the world.
Thirdly, in Kenya, the provisions of public procurement in our constitution were very clear. The critics should tell us which ones had been violated so far.
With this, it was wrong to drag the name of President Ruto.
Notably, the decision by Ruto administration to commence the process of awarding this contract to Adani is not a new phenomenon.
The contracts for Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and Nairobi Expressway had also been sealed through a similar arrangement of Public-Private partnership.
PPP means that a consortia of wealthier people in those countries will fund these projects.
Once completed, they will recover their monies by managing the projects for certain period of time.
For Nairobi Expressway, reports indicated that China consortium will manage this project until the year 2043.
As for Adani, I have heard the critics saying the group will reportedly manage JKIA for 30 years.
I have not seen the contract but I’m sure the final agreement specify the period of time.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga Is A Writer and Commentator based in Nairobi
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