Companies must pass the smell test to be awarded public private partnership contracts

There is no doubt that Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is bursting at the seams. Built in 1978 to handle 2 million passengers annually, the number has grown exponentially over the years. Last year, traveller numbers at the facility rose by 25.2 percent from 6.55 million in 2022 to 8.21 million.

Transport Principal Secretary Mohammed Daghar says, “the traffic is forecast to grow by 4 percent annually to 42.1 million passengers by 2050”.

JKIA in its present form cannot sustain such growth. No amount of patching can resolve its current problems, which include leaking roofs, power outages and mechanical breakdowns of critical infrastructure like baggage carousels.

Capacity constraints are manifesting in inordinately long queues as passengers line up to clear customs and immigration. Anecdotal evidence suggests that JKIA is at least 10 years overdue for a new runway and terminal.

That the Greenfield terminal project to resolve this was canceled a decade ago reflects a paucity of thought in those who put such a critical project on the back burner. JKIA is a major transport hub on the continent.

Hubs are the holy grail of aviation, especially where they are served by spokes bringing in traffic from all over the world. The current deplorable state of the country’s premier airport threatens to upend its status as the region’s gateway.

Tourists from Europe often make Kenya their point of entry. After sampling the veritable feast of delights that the country offers, they then move on to Tanzania and Zanzibar.

JKIA is also the leading export hub out of the continent by volume. Fresh fruits and vegetables, cut flowers, and chilled meats are just some of the produce that is exported through the cargo terminal to markets in Europe and the UAE.

Building a new terminal and runaway is therefore not debatable. It must be done to forestall the existential threat posed to Kenya’s aviation industry. But who gets to do it and how it is financed is what is now raising hackles in a number of conscientious citizens.

Kenyans are understandably antsy following the sinicization of some of the country’s critical infrastructure.  Like others on the continent, the country has not escaped the debt-trap policies of predatory lenders from the orient. These lenders are blamed, not without good reason, for the current state of privation of citizens.

Because the country faces an onerous debt challenge with little headroom to finance new big-ticket infrastructure projects, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been mooted as a viable solution. PPPs are models where public infrastructure is built using funds from the private sector.

First established by the PPP Act of 2013 and superseded by the PPP Act of 2021, these models allow private sector contractors and operators to fund, build and run infrastructure like roads and airports.

Toll fees are levied on users for a fixed duration, usually between 20 to 30 years. The facilities are thereafter handed over to the government.

JKIA may benefit immensely from a PPP. Already, Adani, an Indian airports operator, has submitted a proposal for a PPP to the government.

But to be awarded a contract, Adani must first pass the smell test by meeting all regulatory requirements and satisfying all stakeholders.

-Mr Khafafa is a Public Policy Analyst