President Uhuru Kenyatta officiates construction of JKIA passenger terminal

Tuesday, December 3rd 2013

By MACHARIA KAMAUNAIROBI, KENYA: The construction of the Sh55.6 billion Greenfield Terminal at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is finally set to start after years of controversy.

President Uhuru Kenyatta Tuesday officiated the ground breaking ceremony for the new terminal that will further push up the status of Kenya as a regional aviation hub. The Greenfield Terminal is set for completion in 2017. The proposed terminal has been a battlefront for competing interests whose fights for the control of the tender has spilled into boardrooms, courts and even the National Assembly. The terminal was initially set to start in early 2012 but this was halted after transport minister Amos Kimunya argued the selection of the two Chinese firms that were to start construction had been unprocedural.

“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,” said the Kenya Airports Authority in a statement Friday. 

The facility will increase JKIA’s passenger handling capacity to 20 million passengers. The current airport was originally designed for an annual capacity of 2.5 million passengers. Presently it handles 6.5 million – or three times more than it was designed to handle, leading to difficulties in meeting international customer service standards.

PASSENGER TRAFFIC

Passenger traffic at the airport has been growing at an annual 12 per cent per annum.

By 2020, the passenger numbers are expected to almost triple to 17.1 million and grow by a further 100 per cent to 35.3 million by 2030. JKIA is projected to contribute over 10 per cent of the GDP through support of tourism, horticulture and other sectors.

In August last year, Mr Kimunya came under fire for cancelling the tender for the construction of the new terminal. Kimunya was protesting the award of the contracts to Anhui Construction Engineering Group and China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation, which had been awarded the contracts after clearance by the Public Procurement and Oversight Authority. The awarding of the contract to the two firms might have cost former Managing Director Stephen Gichuki his job.

Though he served a first three year term, he had been sent on compulsory leave in August last year on allegations that the award of the contract was irregular. This was however, overturned by the Industrial Court that ruled the board should reinstate him.

But soon his luck would run out, because he was never considered for a second term. Instead, the board sent him on a terminal leave in August, two months before his term expired. This, the board had said, was in line with hiring rules that required Mr Gichuki be away so as not to influence the hiring process.

The Greenfield Terminal will transform JKIA into among the largest airports in Africa.