By Moses Nyamori and Roselyne Obala
The planned merger of Kenya Airways (KQ) with profit-making Kenya
Airports Authority (KAA) yesterday ran into fresh headwinds over claims
of inadequate public participation.
MPs yesterday protested what they termed as a scheme to sneak in the
contentious National Aviation
Management Bill, 2020 - which seeks to
make KQ a parastatal - without engaging key players in the sector.
The protest forced National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi to order
another round of the collection of views to prevent a possible court
case.
Some of the members of the Transport Committee chaired by Pokot South MP
David Pkosing said on the floor of the House that reports by some key
stakeholders were not taken into consideration.
Wajir North MP Ahmed Abdisalan, a member of the committee, said a KAA
evaluation report was not considered by the committee. He claimed that
the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Competition Authority of Kenya were
also denied an opportunity to submit their views.
At least five members of the committee dissented from the report.
“I am one of those who have dissented from the report. We are five in
number. One of the reasons for dissenting is lack of public
participation. The two days we were given, we were only able to sit for
two hours,” he said.
The protest against the report was triggered by Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang,
who claimed that LSK was denied an opportunity to air its views. Muturi
consequently gave the committee three days to allow those with views to
make their submissions.
“If public participation is raised at this stage, you are preparing the
ground for its challenge in court. Therefore, even if you proceed to the
second reading, the evidence is already in the Hansard. If some of your
members have raised issues of public participation, the lesson learnt
is that we should listen to those concerns,” the Speaker said.
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