President William Ruto on Thursday, November 21, ordered the Ministries of Transport and Energy to cancel the ongoing deals proposed by Adani Group to take control of the country’s infrastructure in the energy and aviation sectors.
He said during his second state of the nation address that the deals with the Indian firm could not continue because of credible evidence from the relevant state agencies.
“I have directed that the ministry of transport and the ministry of energy and petroleum to immediately cancel the ongoing procurement,” Ruto said.
This comes days after the United States government charged Gautam Adani, chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group for allegedly paying Sh30 billion in bribes to the Indian government to obtain solar energy supply contracts. Adani denied the allegations stating that it would look for “all possible legal recourse”.
Adani had proposed a Sh 260 billion deal to renovate the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for a 30-year period and provide Sh95 billion to develop the country’s transmission lines all under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
“In the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take action. Based on the new information provided by investigating agencies and partnering nations that the procuring agencies within Ministry of Transport and Energy immediately cancel the ongoing process for the JKIA PPP deal and KETRACO deal,” he said.
President Ruto’s remarks comes days after Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi had maintained that the Kenya-Adani agreement would remain unchanged.
“We had no knowledge of any other adverse matters that could have come to light and therefore we are proceeding on the basis of the outcome of the rigorous due diligence conducted by the contracting authority in line with the law,” Wandayi told the Parliamentary Energy Committee Thursday, November 14.
