Members of Parliament are now pushing the government to start a purge on some contractors working on various airport projects across the country.
The MPs who sit on the Committee on Transport and Infrastructure want the contractors whose works are deemed shoddy to be blacklisted.
A number of Members who spoke on the matter expressed concern on the manner in which the State Department awards contracts.
“Why are we still awarding contracts to contractors who have failed to deliver? Who are these contractors and what’s their capacity or are there fraudulent activities going on at KAA? Twalib Badi enquired.
“It’s worrying if top-tier contractors are failing to deliver in their services. Could it be that we are awarding too many contracts to particular contractors thus diverting money paid for a particular project to other projects? Could that be the main reason most of them end up with incomplete projects?” Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri posed.
Ndia MP George Kariuki directed the Kenya Aviation Authority and Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to speed up the construction of the projects and ensure that the contractors comply with the standards required.
The lawmakers also indicated that the contractors should be held accountable for breach of timelines set for project completion to mitigate the loss of revenue due to poor infrastructure.
Issues of Land also took center stage where Members established that Airport land had been encroached posing a serious security threat to the aviation sector in the Country. The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) management was directed to provide the Committee with a list of the status of their land.
“Encroachments are a cause of concern. Airport land on lease is not to be renewed until the approval of Parliament”, Chair Kariuki directed.
Transport PS Mohamed Daghar who was present said that some of the residential and commercial buildings have encroached into areas around the airports, even as experts and authorities warn that many of them pose a hazard to the airports.
” Flight funnels must be visible to pilots for smooth take-off and landing”, PS Daghar noted.
PS Mohamed adding that efforts are being put in place to reclaim land encroached.
