Asena @asenareuben - Twitter Profile

11 days ago

Why We Can’t Afford to Fumble the JKIA Upgrade All Kenyans agree that JKIA is no longer fit for purpose, and every traveller, whether tourist or businessperson, who passes through it already knows it. The power fails intermittently. Leaking roofs have become a normal occurrence. All this happens in full view of the very investors we are trying to attract. This can no longer a functioning gateway for a country that calls itself the hub of the region. The father of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, notes in his book From Third World to First that when he began persuading investors to choose Singapore, he understood the importance of first impressions. He ensured that the roads from the airport to their hotels and to his office were neat and immaculate, lined with trees, shrubs and carefully maintained greenery. As investors drove into the island nation, they encountered, right in the heart of the city, a green oasis: 90 acres of rolling lawns and woodland, with a nine-hole golf course nestled within it. I would argue that a world-class airport, delivered through transparent and competitive procurement processes, is just as important in shaping investor confidence. Today, Singapore’s Changi Airport is not only one of the busiest airports in the world, but also one of the best designed and most admired. Nairobi urgently needs a new airport. While we have argued, litigated and scandalised our way through one failed plan after another, Addis Ababa has pressed ahead with the new airport at Bishoftu, while Kigali has moved forward with Bugesera. They are building for the future and positioning themselves to capture the traffic, cargo and connections that currently make Nairobi the centre of East African aviation. Every month we lose, they gain. The cost of delay is measured in routes, jobs, investment and our standing on the continent. We are steadily surrendering advantages that took decades to build, all because of political interests and governance failures. We have never been against upgrading JKIA. We have been against its capture. Those are two completely different things, yet they are deliberately blurred the moment someone asks an uncomfortable question. As we aspire to become a new Singapore, we must embrace the very fundamentals that propelled Singapore to the top: competence, transparency, long-term planning and institutions that place the national interest above private interests. Kenya cannot afford to choose between development and accountability. We need both.

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