The proposed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) takeover by Kenya Airways (KQ) did not involve the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), auditor general Edward Ouko has said.
KAA is the body tasked with managing all the country’s airports and airstrips, and should be in the forefront in any airport/airstrip takeover bid.
In an audit report tabled in parliament yesterday, the office of the auditor general says that it was not furnished with important documents in the highly criticised takeover deal.
“There is no evidence that KAA ever prepared and submitted any proposal to the board. We have not been presented with a feasibility study which could have informed the joint cabinet memo meeting,” said Ouko.
Read: Kenyatta Family through CBA’s Isaac Awuondo Wants to Irregularly Take Over JKIA – MPs
“In fact there is no evidence of any intervening exchange by KAA when the Transport PS communicated the decision of the cabinet until October 18, 2018 when the special board of directors was presented with information”.
The Privately Initiated Investment Proposal (PIIP) was not supposed to be made public until the Public Investment Committee in parliament stumbled on the deal while going through financial accoounts of KAA, subsequently ‘leaking’ it to the public.
The committee then made a request to Ouko to do an audit to determine the viability of the deal. Meanwhile, the committee ordered the halt of the deal until the audit was done.
Three weeks ago, Speaker Justin Muturi asked the committee to stop investigating the takeover deal, accusing them of overstepping their mandate.
The takeover has caused jitters within stakeholders, pushing the Kenya Aviation Workers to go on strike disrupting activities at JKIA. As a result, several flights were cancelled leaving passengers stranded forcing the Airforce and the National Youth Services to come in and provide the services.
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