Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has broken its silence after a video emerged on Monday of leaking roofs at the country’s main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
KAA Managing Director Henry Ogoye said the airport has suffered inadequate facility and infrastructure capacity upgrades in the last 10 years.
“…even temporary interventions became permanent solutions hence the current state of affairs in service disruptions,” he said.
He however said the government has commenced the process of addressing infrastructure development of the facility.
In a statement, Ogoye said the programme will cover expansion of the passenger terminal, runway capacity and provision of additional aircraft parking bays beginning this Financial Year 2023/2024.
“The board, management and staff of KAA are aligned to the concerns of the public and are implementing the government’s civil aviation investment programme to facilitate seamless, efficient and effective service delivery,” he assured.
In the video shared widely on social media, rainwater is seen pouring on the JKIA foyers and hallways from the terminal roofs as travellers queued to either have their luggage checked or book tickets.
KAA also faced criticism last weekend after its management announced that it took 20 minutes to restore power there, following a nationwide blackout that hit Kenya for a few hours on Saturday night.
Ogoye did not address reports of a power outage at the facility in his statement.
On August 25, JKIA faced a blackout despite having power backup generators.
Passengers at JKIA were stranded in darkness for at least two hours as Kenyans reported power outages across the country. KAA attributed the power outage at to system failures.
Reacting to the latest incidence, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the leaking roof at the airport was a result of poor workmanship by the contractor and engineers who were doing renovations at Terminal 1C and 1 E in the previous government.
He said the contractors hurriedly carried out the temporary renovations without meeting the required standards since the government was in the process of decommissioning the terminal and constructing a new one.
He maintained the engineers and contractor who were overseeing the renovations will have to explain why they did a shoddy job that led to the leaking.
