Adani Group wins multi-billion concession to build Kenya's transmission lines

Kenya has awarded a public-private partnership concession to build power transmission lines to India's Adani Group and a unit of the African Development Bank (AfDB), according to President William Ruto's economic adviser David Ndii.

According to Ndii in his post on X, the concession is worth billions of shillings. "The government through the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company has awarded PPP concessions to Adani and Africa50 to build new transmission lines," Ndii wrote. "They are hiring their project teams. The cost of these transmission lines is $1.3bn that we do not have to borrow."

A separate plan by the Kenyan government to lease the country's main international airport to the Adani Group has sparked anger among Kenyans and triggered a strike last week by the country's aviation workers.

The plan involves leasing the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to the Adani Group for 30 years, in exchange for $1.85bn of investment by Adani into the airport's expansion.

The Adani Group operates seven airports in India and has often faced criticism from Indian opposition parties for winning favours from ruling governments. Indian officials and the Adani Group have denied such accusations.

Kenya is struggling with a high debt load accumulated from years of splurging on infrastructure.

A proposal by the government to hike taxes to generate extra money needed for debt repayments sparked deadly protests recently and forced the government to rescind the proposal.

The plan involves leasing the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to the Adani Group for 30 years, in exchange for billions of shillings of investment by Adani into the airport's expansion.

According to senators, the controversial takeover of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Indian tycoon Adani is a done deal, according to the Senate.

This emerged when senators disapproved of the 30-year proposed takeover of JKIA airport operations by the Adani Group of India.

Spirited defense

Despite a spirited defense by Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir that no final agreement had been signed between Kenya and the Indian firm, senators read the small print in documents tabled by the CS and accused him of contradicting himself on the fate of the deal.

Roads and Transport CS Davis Chirchir addresses the media after he witnessed the signing of return-to-work formular between the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), Kenya Airways PLC, and the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) on September 11, 2024. (Photo: X/Davis Chirchir)

The committee also wanted to know why the government was sympathetic to a privately initiated process of revamping the airport and building a second runway, which ensured that Adani was the sole developer, as opposed to an open tender system which would attract more investors.

"From your submission, one would conclude that the deal is done because you have said there is a team in India doing due diligence and you are negotiating for a Kenyan Chief Executive Officer... Who then would you be negotiating with if the deal is not done? posed Narok Senator Ledama Olekina.

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah wanted to be informed whether the Adani deal was a case of money laundering, further asking whether the CS was the rightful person to be fending off questions on the Adani deal before the committee.

"Your document is crafted in a way to suggest the deal is done. It says we shall, we will... this could be a case of money laundering where a public project is being used to repatriate money that has been stolen from Kenya in the guise of developing the airport," said Omtatah.

Further questioning the use of the Public Private Partnership Act in the Adani case, he added, "I would have expected answers from the CS showing that competitive bidding for this project was ruled out...you are trying to scam us in your response. You have no standing to address this committee and I would ask the chair to demand that the Finance Cabinet Secretary, who is the entity recognized by law come to address the committee under the questions we have asked."

But in his response, Chirchir submitted that no pen had been put to paper on the airport takeover deal yet.

He also revealed that the Adani group had expressed interest to revamp the airport under a privately initiated proposal which, he said, was allowed for by the PPP Act, 2021.

"No legally binding agreement has been finalized, it is just a draft document...the discussions have only led to the development of a non-binding Head of Terms which has not been signed. The Head of Terms outlines the key terms of the commercial transaction that have been mutually agreed upon in principle," said the CS.