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The Nairobian

Top officials behind the Adani deal don't have Kenya's interest at heart

Macharia Munene

By Macharia Munene | Sep 15, 2024

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Kenya is going through self-inflicted agony due to high powered incompetence which manifests itself in mega corruption. Those in power give the impression that they do not care about the country’s wellbeing as they indulge in widespread extravagance. Reports from the Auditor General reveal systematic rot at the national core. Governors become overnight billionaires, ministers increase their official wealth in millions, and leaders playing Hustler Grandees keep piling taxes on impoverished Kenyans officially to pay external debts.

Kenyans, saddled with debts they know little about, watch ‘leaders’ wallow in insulting luxury as critical services to the public such as health and education disappear. The poor remain poor and subservient to external whims as entrusted state officials sacrifice national interests, including national security, at the altar of self-aggrandisement and praises by external ‘friends’.

Putting the country into intensified poverty reveals that officials lack capacity to act properly. Some lack capacity because they have no integrity. Lack of capacity could also be inherent in the system with mandate ambiguity that leaves decisions to the wishes of crooked operators whose efficiency is in frustrating good undertakings. There is also lack of moral capacity to resist ill attractions of high office since holding high office is not evidence of moral capacity; it instead could become conduit to institutional destruction. This is what has happened to Kenya.

The destruction of Kenya is not accidental; it is wilful in that some officials appear to sell, lease, or surrender critical national institutions to external forces. They give the impression that institutions are there for easy taking, so much that Diageo CEO Debra Crew could call for recolonisation of African transport system. This attitude fits well with the reported surrender or lease of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to an Indian Gautam Adani, who is accused of stock manipulation and financial fraud. Adani has political clout in India, as he is reportedly close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi’s political critics in India point to the damage that the allegations on Adani cost India’s reputation. The allegations became public in 2023 at the very time some Kenyan officials secretly launched plans to hand airports and the energy sector to Adani.

The reported terms that Adani demanded angered the public so much that government officials went into defensive mode. Former Nairobi Town Clerk Philip Kisia questioned the procedure used to identify Adani, called the proposal “a masterpiece of economic absurdity” and noted the various adverse reports on Adani from India and Australia. Airport workers went on strike and forced government officials to deny giving away the airport and to negotiate with the workers on ending the strike. Transport CS Davis Chirchir denied that the government had sold or leased the airport and said proper procedures were yet to be followed.

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All there was, he said, were preliminary expressions of interest and no binding agreement had been reached. He managed to persuade striking workers to return to work but was not able to address circulating documents that showed that Kenyan officials had seemingly agreed to an enslaving deal, virtually restricting Kenya on what it can do with its airports. Kimani Ichung’wah struggled to explain PPP and revealed that even Turkey and Qatar had shown interest in Kenyan airports. Neither Chirchir nor Ichung’wah addressed circulating documents that showed Adani taking over the airports. For having tried to enslave the country to Adani, Lawyer Donald Kipkorir argued, traitorous officials deserve court martial.

The Adani saga is an insult that shows those entrusted with protecting Kenya’s interests lack capacity for the job. They lack awareness of Kenya’s national interests and also lack integrity. They increase national pain, smugly talk of PPP panacea, and fail to consider the injury to Kenya. Their lack of essential capacity to safeguard Kenya’s interests invalidates their supposed mandate to commit the country to anything. Ditch the Adani deal.