Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, and the Kenya Power and Lighting and Company (KPLC) are under pressure after Operation Linda Ugatuzi demanded answers over the blackout that hit the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Authority (JKIA).
On Monday, August 28, Operation Linda Ugatuzi wrote to the Kenya Airport Authority (KAA) and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Authority (JKIA) demanding information on what transpired at the airport on the Friday 25 August.
The letter is seeking information or documents relating to airport activities at the time of blackout, around 9:45 pm.
“Pursuant to Section 8 of the Access to Information Act (Supra) we are compelled to request for documents of airport activities on August 25 as follows; A manifest of the inventory of all arrivals of the passenger planes, all arrivals of the cargo planes at JKIA, a manifest of all the departures of passenger plane(s) from the JKIA, all the departures of cargo planes from the JKIA and passengers who flew into the country, during the outage,” the letter read.
Furthermore, Operation Linda Ugatuzi, gave the Authorities involved a specified period to surrender the information, failure to which they shall face legal consequences.
“In view and consideration of the urgency of the rights and fundamental freedoms that we intend to enforce, we would be grateful if KAA could provide the information and/or documents sought herein urgently and in any event within SEVEN (7) days of the date of receipt of this letter,” the letter dictated.
“Even as we wait for their putative office to act upon this request, we wish to remind them that failure to respond to a request for information required for the exercise of another right or fundamental freedom constitutes a criminal offence punishable under the laws of Kenya,” Operation Linda Ugatuzi further cautioned.
According to the lobby group, they have credible information that during the entire time of the power outage, the stand-by generators serving various terminals at the JKIA failed to kick in after the outage.
Therefore, leading to an unprecedented paralysis in the entire airport’s operation but also the flight control towers and the airport’s runways.
Consequently, the group argues that it was acting in accordance with the constitution to protect Kenyans rights.
“To this end, Article 35(1)(b) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 as read together with Section 4 of the Access to Information Act No. 31 of 2016 underscores the right of every citizen to access information held by another person that is required for the exercise or protection of another right or fundamental freedom entrenched in the Bill of Rights,”
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According to Operation Linda Ugatuzi, they felt that Kenyans are being taken for granted by being fed on misleading information since.
The operation body disclosed that top government officials orchestrated the power outage to conduct illegal activities at the time.
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“We have insider information regarding the fact that the power blackout was well planned and well executed and the responses by the CS Transport of forcing the CEO KAA to resign was to cover up on some consignment that was being smuggled into the country as the there are several planes that continued to land even as the blackout continued and power was restored once the Mission was accomplished,” Linda Ugatuzi asserted.
