Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.By Mdadisi Mmoja
Frequent power failures being witnessed at Kenya’s busiest air facility, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, in Nairobi is becoming a major security concern to stakeholders associated with the facility. The power blackouts that lasts hours on end are said to be inconveniencing a number of innocent travelers. Over the last number of days, business people and tourists both foreign and local have had to adjust their itinerary to fit in with the inefficient management style being exhibited by the facility's management team led by one, Stephen Mwangi Gichuki as the managing director. Mr. Gichuki was controversially installed into office by the then acting Transport Minister Amos Kimuya amid protests from parliament. A Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Communications led by the committee chairman David Were MP for Matungu constituency,Mumias county had cried fowl over the appointment made by Mr. Kimunya, claiming the Minister had overlooked a more experienced manager in Mr.Matthew Wamalwa who was then acting as the Managing Director, after the retirement of Mr. George Muhoho. The security of the facility itself and the people utilizing it, are both in grave danger if the radar system, scanners, security cameras and lights keep on malfunctioning as a result of power outages.Power failures may not be a preserve of JKIA, but the difference with airports found in a proper functioning society is that ours is becoming so frequent that it has now become the norm.
Deviation of airplanes to neighboring capitals is nothing new to those who follow keenly the goings on at JKIA. Angry,hungry and tired looking tourists, who maybe looking forward to a cold/hot shower in a hotel room as they prepare for a safari to the Mara or attend to an important business meeting in town, are shocked to discover that they are being directed to Dar es salaam in Tanzania, Kampala in Uganda or even Kigali in Rwanda. An airport the size of JKIA or any other airport for that matter should always have efficient stand by generators, which would automatically kick start to provide power immediately the mains go off for any reason. We all know that managing an airport the size of JKIA, in terms of arrivals and departures is not an easy tasks and that it also requires a great deal of investment both manpower and infrastructure for efficient operations to be achieved.
As we write this story, the MD Mr. Gichuki,together with his team of officials, the same people charged with the smooth and efficient running of the airport have not determined what caused the outages that have occurred twice in less than four days. Which begs the question, is the airport in the right management hands? Is the team mandated to run this critical national facility up to task? We ask these questions because we have seen it in the past, some unscrupulous individuals within the management of the airport could be compromised to breach security of the airport. We all remember the case of the now famous Artur brothers, foreign individual with political connections and influence within the current establishment, who were issued with badges indicating they both held ranks of assistant commissioner within the Kenya police force, that meant the duo could access any airport within the republic without hindrance from any quoter.
These happenings can only be witnessed in failed state of which Kenya does not surely belong.It is only in failed states such as Somalia, where a power grid connected to an airport or harbor can conveniently be switched off to facilitate the offloading of contraband goods.It happened in some country in South America where drug dealers once acquired a submarine to facilitate transportation of cocaine to the USA. And as indicated our next door neighbors Somalia, for a long time has been a beneficiary of illicit cash meant for pirates operating off her high seas. Kenya could be witnessing the beginning of some illegal movement of goods through her busiest airports, as we head into an election year when politicians will want to make money at whatever cost to fund the 2012 campaigns, and that includes shipping in drugs through the airport.
We posted this story yesterday at around 2pm Kenyan time, at that moment we didn't know that a few individuals within the JKIA management team were expecting a cargo plane at the airport later on in the evening.The Daily Nation of today the 20th of July 2011, reports that a cargo plane with eight men on board, arrived from PAKISTAN and sort emergency landing at the facility citing lack of sufficient fuel as reason.Since the withdrawal of the Pakistani national carrier (PIA) from the Islamabad/Nairobi route decades ago,air traffic between the two countries has been non existent.So what is it that our friends from Pakistan were delivering to Nairobi,when most planes had already been diverted to neighboring capitals?
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