Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir was on Thursday night taken to task on how the Adani Group would raise billions of money it claims will be needed for the renovations of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
While appearing on Citizen Tv, the Cabinet Secretary said that Adani will borrow 70 per cent of the funds.
“Investing own money from own sources is expensive. On the other hand, debt is cheap. Since equity is expensive, the ration of equity to debt is 3 to 7 or 30 per cent to 70 per cent,” he said.
CS Chirchir was however unable to explain where Adani would get this money from, and could only assume that the money would be borrowed from banks with a support letter from the government of Kenya.
“It’s a complex transaction. It will be a couple of banks because we are not looking for equity,” he said.
India’s Adani Airports goes after 30 acres of land near JKIA
This came amidst growing voices against the leasing of Kenya’s top airport to Adani for three decades.
The proposed takeover of the JKIA has been shrouded in secrecy and controversy, and was only revealed to the public after a whistleblower leaked its details.
The government has so far been unable to explain why the proposed patchworks at the JKIA that have not included the construction of a new runway will cost nearly the same amount of money neighbouring countries Ethiopia and Rwanda are using to build brand new airports from the ground.
