Former Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Ambassador Macharia Kamau has criticised the state of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
In a statement on X, Macharia said that it gets depressing when one arrives at JKIA from a trip abroad, especially people from developed countries.
He said that the situation is worse when one gets into the airport’s terminal, which he said looks like a makeshift warehouse.
The former PS said that getting into the terminal gives one the feeling of “living in the stone age” period.
“Sometimes one arrives home from an international trip, say from Dubai, and one looks out the window of the plane at the depressing & chaotic urban sprawl and then gets into the makeshift warehouse that is the terminal & one just wanna weep. It’s like we are still in the Stone Age,” Amb Macharia said.
His remarks come a few days after one of JKIA’s renovated terminals was exposed for having a leaking roof.
According to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), Managing Director Henry Ogoye 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.
Ogoye said the programme will cover the expansion of the passenger terminal, runway capacity and provision of additional aircraft parking bays beginning this Financial Year 2023-24.
“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 said.