President William Ruto has set July as the start date for the construction of a new airport, bringing fresh momentum to a project that has long been caught up in public debate and political hesitation.
The President spoke on Friday while hosting leaders from Marsabit County at State House, Nairobi, where he pointed to the deteriorating state of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as the reason the government could no longer afford to delay.
He told the leaders that the current facility had become an embarrassment, with a makeshift canvas covering part of the tarmac. He said the funds needed to get the project off the ground were ready, without disclosing where the money was coming from.
The President spoke on Friday while hosting leaders from Marsabit County at State House, Nairobi, where he pointed to the deteriorating state of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as the reason the government could no longer afford to delay.
He told the leaders that the current facility had become an embarrassment, with a makeshift canvas covering part of the tarmac. He said the funds needed to get the project off the ground were ready, without disclosing where the money was coming from.
The declaration came one day after it emerged that a Chinese state firm, China Communications Construction Company, had been handed the contract to modernise and expand JKIA. Its subsidiary, China Road and Bridge Corporation, which built the Standard Gauge Railway and the Nairobi Expressway, will carry out the work on the ground.
The contract is worth Ksh375.4 billion, roughly $2.9 billion, and the scope of work is substantial. JKIA currently receives close to nine million passengers a year, well above the seven and a half million it was designed to handle, making the expansion a matter of urgency rather than ambition.
The contract is worth Ksh375.4 billion, roughly $2.9 billion, and the scope of work is substantial. JKIA currently receives close to nine million passengers a year, well above the seven and a half million it was designed to handle, making the expansion a matter of urgency rather than ambition.
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