Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has responded to Larry Madowo following his viral video exposing the plight of visitors at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
Speaking in an interview on Citizen TV, Murkomen hit out at Madowo asking how he had failed to notice the challenges at JKIA despite being in the country for the last five decades.
“I was laughing because Larry was with us in the country for the last fifty years when that airport was like that. Suddenly because he lives in ‘majuu’ his eyes are open and realizes that there is no shade when you exit JKIA,” he remarked.
“It happens to all of us when we travel. Those questions should have been asked since 1978.”
In his response, Murkomen told off Madowo’s criticism of the airport and assured that the government was working to construct a new terminal before the next elections.
“It is not news that JKIA does not have a canopy for shielding passengers, it is a fact. I want to tell Kenyans that by the time we are going to the next elections, we will have a new terminal at least complete or almost complete that will make JKIA a more competitive airport with facilities that are enviable and make us an aviation hub,” he said.
The CS also mentioned the current reforms that are underway to improve the Airport including the reinstatement of power backup system to avoid interruptions.
“First of all, I’m happy with the progress so far with the JKIA reform processes, because you haven’t called me again about the generator and blackout…but as I told you, this is a very old facility and these old facilities require now a massive overhaul,” he added.
“For a long period of time, we’ve been patching, for example the runway lights at Wilson gave in the other day when it rained heavily because these are lights that were buried under the soil, they didn’t have the ducts that are used for putting cables are very old. So, we had to repair them the other day.”
Larry calls out Murkomen in his latest response
In a subsequent statement, Larry responded to the criticism by Murkomen noting that he didn’t suddenly discover how bad JKIA is and further stated that he had been complaining about it for ten years.
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Madowo also provided photo evidence to prove the state of JKIA for the past decade he has been observing.
He termed Murkomen’s accusations as gaslighting, deflective and trivializing the issue.
Also Read: JKIA Introduces New Services for Passengers Carrying Luggage
“I didn’t “suddenly” discover how bad JKIA is, I’ve complained about it for 10 years, JKIA is 66 – 30yrs older than me and you don’t need a pre-election terminal to build canopies for the existing ones,” he noted.
The CNN correspondent further produced photos of his previous tweets dating back to 2014.
“Does this look like “suddenly” to you?”
“JKIA is the only major airport where passengers wander on the airside looking for their aircraft like it’s a treasure hunt.”
Also Read: Larry Madowo Exposes Unseen Side of JKIA Visitors Go Through on Arrival
The former NTV and BBC journalist also complained about the long distance between the terminals and the drop-off points which he noted exposed visitors to unnecessary delays.
“Flying into or out of JKIA in the rain is an extreme sport. The pick-up and drop-off points are so far from the terminals that you have to get drenched. Do better.”
Madowo questioned the lack of accountability from the relevant ministries and authorities, asking if Kenya was indeed poised to become the “new Singapore”.
“If it’s not the escalators broken down for ages, the toilets aren’t working, or the roof is leaking. The incompetence is legendary.”
