Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has responded to the sacking of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport head following last month's power interruption at the premises.
During an interview with Spice FM, the CS was asked whether the sacking situation was going to happen again as JKIA was in the dark for most hours of Sunday night.
"There was no one to sack. You know you people have been telling me to take my mattress to JKIA and monitor the power generator to avoid these issues in the future," he said.
Murkomen added that the issues at JKIA are systemic as the airport has been experiencing these problems for many years.
"First, we came up with the new board at the Kenya Airports Authority, and told them to look at human resources and ensure we don't have 'acting people', and they advertised for various positions," he said.
"When I had a candid conversation with the former MD, he said there was a lot of sabotage at the institution, and his term was coming to an end."
On the ouster of the former KAA boss Alex Gitari, Murkomen said that Gitari had asked to go on an early exit.
"I asked Gitari what we can do about the situation at the JKIA and he told me he has no problem if he can take an early exit, and this was an opportunity to hire new people," Murkomen said.
Murkomen had terminated the contract of Gitari in August after a power blackout which also affected JKIA leading to passengers getting stranded in darkness for at least two hours.
"By mutual consent, the contract of Mr Alex Gitari, who has been the managing director of Kenya Airports Authority, has been terminated" Murkomen announced.
While apologising, Murkomen however said that the power shortage did not interfere with the outgoing or incoming flights.
