After
a two-year delay, the expansion of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
takes off on Tuesday when President Uhuru Kenyatta breaks the ground for
the new terminal.
The work on the Sh55 billion
terminal comes barely a week after President Kenyatta started work on
the Sh1.2 trillion standard gauge railway that will run from Mombasa to
Kigali.
The airport terminal and the railway are
expected to be completed by 2017, cementing Kenya’s position as the
gateway to eastern Africa.
The two are funded by loans from China on an 85:15 per cent funding with the Kenya Government.
For the airport terminal, Kenya Airports Authority will meet 15 per cent of the cost.
“The
new terminal will be constructed to increase annual handling capacity
by 20 million passengers. Construction begins in December 2013 and will
be completed in 2017,” read a statement from the authority.
A committee to monitor the works was set up by Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau, two months ago.
The
expansion will increase the airport’s passenger capacity fourfold from
6.5 million passengers a year to 26.5 million, to keep pace with a
projected annual passenger traffic growth of 12 per cent.
It
is also expected to raise Nairobi as an economic hub for East and
Central Africa. This, government hopes, will maintain Jomo Kenyatta as a
key economic driver estimated to be about 10 per cent of Kenya GDP.
“The
increase in capacity will unlock the suppressed growth, which will
stimulate other sectors of the economy,” the airports authority says in a
report justifying the new terminal.
The construction
will also come as a boost to Kenya Airways in its plan to implement the
ambitious Project Mawingu expansion that will see the national carrier
almost triple its current fleet from 41 aircraft to 103 over 10 years.
The airline has complained of lack of parking space for its planes,
sometimes hiring Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania for parking.
The
project has, however, had its share of controversy. According to the
construction planning timetable, the airports authority board of
directors approved the Greenfield Terminal Project masterplan after a
meeting with then minister for Transport, John Michuki, on March 9,
2011.
After advertising the tender on June 23, 2011,
110 firms expressed interest in the project. But after about a month, on
July 19, 2011, just 70 bidders attended the pre-bid meeting. The
closing date of bids was extended from September 21, 2011 to October 25
upon request by the airports authority.
The Transport
ministry then gave the authority’s board the greenlight to proceed with
the tender in terms of procurement processes, but matters took a nose
dive after Mr Amos Kimunya replaced Mr Michuki as minister. The process
was then cancelled until now.
The Transport ministry
under Mr Kimunya insisted that the procurement process ought to be
discontinued and restarted afresh. At the end of a meeting in January
2012, the Transport ministry ordered the airports authority to have the
tender cancelled and instituted afresh.
CANCELLED TENDER
However,
the authority stayed on course and, on December 15, 2011, Anhui
Construction, a Chinese firm, was awarded the tender to begin
construction, which was later revoked by Mr Kimunya.
Around
this time, on January 20, 2012, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption
Commission launched investigations after claims that the award of the
contract was riddled with corrupt dealings. Five firms had reached the
final stage of the contract award from the initial 70 that had submitted
bids.
The controversy continued, with the then Office
of the Prime Minister, the AG’s Office and the Public Procurement
Oversight Authority engaging in a tug-of-war on the legality of the
procurement process.
On August 10, 2012, Mr Kimunya
gazetted a new steering committee to oversee implementation of the
project – recently disbanded by Transport cabinet secretary Kamau.
The Transport ministry wanted the airports authority board out of the tendering committee.
Managing
director Stephen Gichuki was sent on compulsory leave for failing to
implement a directive by Mr Kimunya to have the tender cancelled.
However,
the minister’s decision was revoked by the Industrial Court and Mr
Gichuki was reinstated. Mr Gichuki was later replaced by Alice Mbugua.
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