The Kenyan Ministry of Transport has formed a committee to investigate the state of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), which operates the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), after recent interruptions to its operations.
Recently, a national blackout delayed flights for two hours when the airport’s standby generator did not switch on automatically to provide an uninterrupted supply of power – the latest of several infrastructural problems that have affected the airport’s operations.
According to transport cabinet secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, the committee will assess the state of infrastructure and electro-mechanical facilities at the airport and make remedial recommendations where it finds problems.
Speaking during a press conference at the JKIA, Murkomen stated that the team was also to review work undertaken by contractors in the past two years.
"The committee will co-opt other members as may be necessary. It is expected that the committee will submit an interim report within the next 14 days and a final report within 28 days," he said.
He added that heavy rains being experienced in the country had exposed the poor quality of work that had been undertaken during the renovation of terminals at JKIA, Kenya's most important gateway.
KAA has blamed the embarrassing roof leaks at the JKIA to a decade-long underinvestment in the facility.
In a statement, the authority's acting managing director, Henry Ogoye, stated that the government was currently funding the facility’s expansion and upgrading.
"Over the last ten years, JKIA has suffered inadequate facility and infrastructure capacity upgrades to the extent that even temporary interventions became permanent solutions, hence the current state of affairs in service disruptions," he stated.
Ogoye further said that the government had commenced the process of addressing infrastructure development of the facility covering the expansion of the passenger terminal, runway capacity and provision of additional aircraft parking bays beginning this financial year.
