Senators ask Ruto to stop Adani's controversial JKIA takeover over integrity

Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir when he appeared before a Parliamentary Committee. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The Senate has called for the shelving of the controversial Sh230 billion plan to hand over the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to India’s Adani Airport Holdings.

This even as the State denied the existence of a concession deal with the firm, details of which have sparked public outrage in recent weeks.

It also emerged that the Kenyan government had only done desktop due diligence to the consternation of senators who spoke of frozen Adani accounts by Swiss authorities.

Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davies Chirchir yesterday told the Senate that the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) was yet to enter an agreement with the firm owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.

Senator Ali Roba (Mandera) called for the cancellation of the proposed deal because of integrity concerns that have been raised over its activities across various countries.

However, Chirchir defended the Adani takeover by saying, “I wish to remind us of the great benefits that this proposed model is expected to bring to the nation, which is among others; a modernized facility to balance capacity leading to operational excellence and regional competitiveness as an aviation hub; improved service quality trade and associated trade activities while maintaining Kenya as a premium anchor state in the region.”

The Senate heard that Adani had only been subjected to desktop due diligence covering taxes integrity and financial capability and was found to be compliant.

Due diligence

However, Samson Cherargei (Nandi) said the Swiss authorities had frozen Adani's accounts and asked Chirchir to cancel the deal adding that the President will understand even as he wondered whether the deal was being as an avenue to launder money.

Chirchir however, revealed Adani is currently under detailed legal, technical and financial due diligence.

Okiya Omtatah (Busia) accused Chirchir of taking the Senate in circles since through his submissions, it was clear that the deal was already concluded and that his presentation was just concealing fraud terming the deal as an avenue for money laundering.

Omtatah asked the CS why he was answering the Private Public Partnership (PPP) question as a stranger arguing that it was the Cabinet Secretary for Finance who should answer why competitive bidding was not done.

Roads and Transport Committee Chairperson Karungo Thangwa came to the aid of the CS stating that Chirchir was properly before the committee and that they had requested the Director General of PPP to appear together with the CS but he was not available.

However, Ledama ole Kina (Narok) wondered whether Adani had some insider information about the deal and why the government was keen to hand over JKIA to the Indian firm putting an asset worth trillions of shillings to a private company at a paltry Sh230 billion.

“I would like to ask the Cabinet Secretary to tell us how did Adani, a conglomerate based in India got insider information about what ails our airports, if it is not the work of a cabal since if you google Adani, it comes out as a corrupt company that has violated various international protocols in various countries? posed Ledama.

Chirchir said that the PPP Act seeks to help develop mega projects that the government may not have money to execute adding that the government has been marketing the country to foreign investors.

 Legal suits

He said the deal was still undergoing stakeholder engagement, due diligence and drafting of the concession agreement. The presence of Adani representatives at the Sh1.1 trillion valued JKIA has sparked suspicion that the deal was already done.

The secrecy with which the government has handled the subject has made it seem as though their hands were tied on the deal already attracting legal suits.

Kisii senator Richard Onyonka brought the matter up during a session of the Senate’s Roads and Transport Committee that it was not easy to get information about the Adani deal and that he relied on Nelson Amenya who works in France. He was concerned about Amenya’s safety because some people had been following him.

He asked Chirchir whether he was aware that Jayesh Saini, a prominent investor in the health sector, is an agent of Adani Holdings Limited in Kenya and that meetings had been done in Dubai where former Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen met him and money changed hands.

Chirchir denied any knowledge of the alleged meeting in Dubai.