State should come to the rescue of Kenya Airways

The national carrier, Kenya Airways, needs urgent attention from the Government to save it from imminent collapse.

In audited books of accounts released recently, for the second year running, KQ has made a loss running into Sh26 billion. It was even more worrying since the result was worse than the previous year.

This is an indicator that if no concrete effort is made, the trend may persist and spell doom for the airline.

A number of factors have been put forward to explain the dwindling fortunes of the once blue chip company. They include business agreements skewed to its disadvantage, poor strategic decisions, high interest rates accrued on loans, instability in the money market, which has led to shrinking of the shilling against the dollar, fuel prices shooting through the roof, global terrorism and unsound policies.

The various causes call for unity of purpose from all aviation and airline industry players to come up with measures to stabilise the airline financially and bring it back to profitability.

The national carrier is our pride and has potential to offer more jobs to our ever-growing population. It is one of the drivers towards better economic prospects as envisioned in Vision 2030.

The Government through its renewed influence in the global and regional spheres should initiate negotiations with the airline's creditors, with the aim of reviewing interest on loans, or staggering them over a sustainable period to give the airline a grace period for reorganisation. The airline's debtors must be called upon to pay up.

Directors and board appointments should be done carefully so that only qualified people who can add value to the airline are considered.

The era of political appointees who turn organisations into cash cows for political patronage is gone. Needed are managers who can ably negotiate deals that work in the airline's interest.

Past and present managers and Government officials who have contributed to the dwindling fortunes of the airline should be called upon to account.

We have set a bad precedent in this country where top managers and directors abuse office, flout sound management regulations, embezzle funds and we let them go scot-free.

It is unacceptable that we allow the actions of an individual or a few people to bring down national institutions and organisations that provide a livelihood for many Kenyans.

The Government should try a protectionist tack by offering the largest client base. All Government officials should be compelled to use the national carrier.

KQ should be the sole carrier for all the three arms of Government's officials. Equally, a bigger percentage of local flights should be awarded to KQ.

It should not be subjected to unnecessary competition so long as the Government safeguards the public against exploitation by the carrier.

 

Most of the competitors in the airline industry bring along their labour force, denying Kenyans chances of securing employment. Likewise, Kenya Airways needs to be the sole cargo handler to boost iits revenue base.

The Government's effort to fight terrorism and ensure the country is safe will go a long way to boost tourism industry. This will in turn attract more tourists providing passengers for the carrier.

Equally to be protected are industrious ordinary shareholders of the airline.