Time to cede Wilson airport to military

Nairobi is home to two busy airports that, given the city’s accelerated growth, are disasters waiting to happen. Wilson Airport, a civilian facility minutes away from the Central Business District and the Eastleigh Airbase, a military installation hemmed in by housing estates, have both seen a growing number of accidents involving settlements in their flight paths.

The most recent of the accidents have, so far, had few casualties. Two accidents this year involving light craft based at Wilson resulted in deaths.

In one, documentary makers overflying Kibera crashed into power-lines and hit a high-rise apartment block. This week a Police Airwing Cessna 404 Titan crashed into Mugoya estate in South C. There have been several crashes involving student pilots also reported, some fatal.

The growth of a slum within a few hundred metres of Wilson is a source of much controversy as is the development of commercial plots and residential housing estates. Eastleigh, meanwhile, is surrounded by housing. When it is used by large planes arriving for servicing (or by the presidential jet) it involves a hazardous approach over part of the city.

The 2001 crash of a Northrup F-5 fighter jet at Eastleigh led to calls for relocation of the military base. But with only one casualty on the ground and with the military pointing out there had been no other accidents at the facility, it was not long before that issue was pushed to the back burner.

Notable Incidents

It is time to bring the issue to the forefront before a major dis-aster forces the State’s hand.

Wilson averages 120,000 landings and take-offs a year. This is a high number of flights for a facility threatened by birdstrikes as scavengers are attracted to waste from settlements in the airport’s flight path. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that even if the level of notable ‘incidents’ falls to internationally accepted levels, there would still be greater risk of accidents with a high number of casualties thanks to increased dangers around the airport.

In recent years, there has been talk of Wilson being turned into a secure military facility, reducing air traffic there, as Embakasi’s Old Airport is reopened as a more secure facility for light aircraft.

But all these plans have been nothing but mere talk. The prohibitive cost of closing down an airport and constructing alternatives far away from human developments means this may be the case for a while longer.

But given the threat to lives the two airports pose, and considering the fact that demolishing most of the settlements is hardly an option, the Government must seriously begin planning for relocation and changing the use to which the airports are put.

The simplest solution, as we see it, would be to split military and police air traffic between the Eastleigh and Wilson facilities. At the moment the Air Force, Police Air Wing and Kenya Army have a limited aircraft presence of mostly cargo planes and trainers. But there are purchases of fighter jets and other craft in the pipeline. This modernisation programme will lead to more military traffic, which would make Eastleigh increasingly dangerous if nothing is done about the problem.

Turning Wilson into a purely military facility would easily accommodate the expansion. Risks from uncontrolled developments around the airports, on the other hand, would be reduced significantly because this would cut the number of flights leaving the airports. Civilian traffic could be moved to Old Airport, Embakasi and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where there is more room for expansion and demolition of encroaching structures is more practical.

Decongestion

Given the high volume of traffic from civilian craft, this has to be a gradual transition. Old Airp-ort can be leased out to an operator who can serve some of this traffic. New terminals for domestic flights should be included in ongoing expansion. By switching flights gradually until all civilian traffic no longer uses Wilson, airport authorities can prepare Nairobi for a safer future. Ideally, airports should be on the outskirts of the city. But since Eastleigh and Wilson can’t move, the next best thing is decongestion.