President William Ruto has recently lashed out at Kenyans who have been criticising the government on the plans to modernise the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport through private-public partnerships, terming them as unpatriotic.
Speaking during the opening of Devki Iron Ore Pelletisation Plant in Taita Taveta, Ruto insisted that the government will not disembark from the plans to modernise JKIA.
According to him, those attacking the government, particularly on social media, lacked alternative ideas on how best to develop key infrastructure such as airports despite their criticisms.
He went on to accuse them of sabotaging investors who had shown interest in investing in Kenya.
“Sometimes, when we have people who believe in Kenya, who want to invest in Kenya, such people, we sabotage them yet the people who sabotage our country, we glorify them as if they were anything. Recently, I saw other people glorify those who stopped the construction of the airport as heroes, what heroes? The airport is in a tent. Other countries are building their airports yet ours is not built. What gain do you get when you stop the building of an airport in your country and you lack alternative ideas and you have no clue how it will be built.’’
He moreover defended the government’s plans to bring in the Indian conglomerate of companies Adani International, insisting that the plans were in the best interest of the country.
adding that the government is still committed to its plans to modernise the JKIA despite the exit of Adani from the project.
“Let me assure you we are going to build a new airport in Kenya. We may have stopped Adani from doing it. I was confident he was going to build our airport and he was going to do a good job but because of the law barring us from engaging with people who have cases, we stopped it but that does not mean we are not going to build the airport. We are going to get a new framework, we are going to work with people who believe in this country to build a new airport for us because that is what the future looks like,” he stated.
