Kenya Airports Authority has moved to address roof leakages at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport following a directive from Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen.
Acting managing director Henry Ogoye said repair works have already commenced at terminals 1B and 1C of the airport.
In a statement, Ogoye noted that heavy rainfall over the last few days has adversely impacted the temporary drainage infrastructure put by the contractor on site resulting in the current leakages being experienced at the terminals.
“This is being mitigated as works progress and the contractor has been instructed to complete the works on schedule,” he said.
Ogoye apologised for the inconvenience caused by the leakages.
“KAA remains committed to upholding the highest standards of service,” he assured.
Services at some sections of the country’s biggest airport have been paralysed following the leakages, again.
Travellers on Friday found themselves in a dilemma with some essential services getting stuck due to the heavy rain.
Some roofs at the airport are also leaking, causing operations of Terminal 1C that serves Qatar, Lufthansa, Ethiopia, Turkish and Rwanda international airlines to halt.
In November last year, a viral video of a leaking roof at JKIA went viral, but Murkomen blamed it on poor workmanship by the contractor and engineers who did renovations at Terminal 1C and 1E during the tenure of former President Uhuru Kenyatta's government.
He claimed the contractors hurriedly carried out the temporary renovations without meeting the required standards.
Murkomen said then that the government was in the process of decommissioning the terminal and constructing a new one.
"At the start of President William Ruto’s administration last year, we found dilapidated infrastructure at our airports, and even though we have done our best to address the problem, some issues remain because of previous long-term neglect,” Murkomen said at the time.
After the November leakage, KAA announced a face-lift to begin in the current financial year.
KAA said JKIA has suffered inadequate facility and infrastructure capacity upgrade in the last decade, to the extent even temporary interventions became permanent solutions.
