President William Ruto lashed out on Tuesday at Kenyans who have criticized the government’s intentions to modernize Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) through private-public partnerships, calling them disloyal.
Ruto stated during the opening of the Devki Iron Ore Pelletisation Plant in Taita Taveta on December 2 that the government will not abandon plans to renovate JKIA.
According to Ruto, individuals criticizing the government, notably on social media, lacked alternative ideas for developing essential infrastructure like as airports.He accused them of undermining investors who expressed 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,” Ruto argued.
“Recently, I saw other people glorify those who stopped the construction of the airport as heroes, what heroes? The airport is in a tent,” he added.
“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.
”The President also defended the government’s intentions to bring in the Indian conglomerate Adani International, claiming that they were in the best interests of the country.
Ruto stated that despite Adani’s resignation from the project, the government is committed to modernising the JKIA.
To do this, he stated that the government was actively working on a plan to generate fresh ideas and proposals for how to improve the country’s airport infrastructure.
“Let me assure you we are going to build a new airport in Kenya. We may have stopped Adani from doing it,” Ruto stated.
“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 added.
Ruto’s statements follow a recent announcement he made during the State of the Nation address in Parliament on November 21.
The Head of State urged the Ministries of Transport and Energy to immediately annul any agreements with Adani International.
Ruto made the remarks in response to Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho’s remarks on how a segment of Kenya’s populace was exploiting social media to advance non-issues, including negatively characterizing the government.
“This is the only country where someone takes to social media to negatively comment about their leaders and use negative images to predict their fate,” Joho stated.
