The Cabinet Secretary at the Ministry of Transport Kipchumba Murkomen has announced that the government is seeking to fast track the construction of the Kericho Airport.
The airport is expected to occupy more than 1,600 acres of land. It will expanded from the current airstrip known as Kerenga Airstrip and will be aimed at serving the South Rift region, according to the cabinet secretary.
“Following the directive by the President to construct an airport in Kericho, we are engaged in talks with the multinational companies, the National Land Commission (NLC) and the county government to secure land for the project,” said CS Murkomen.
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According to the cabinet secretary, multinational tea companies have agreed to surrender part of the land they have leased for the upgrade.
The plan for the construction of the airport was first announced by President William Ruto on March 4 when he toured the South Rift region. During that tour, the president announced that the tea estate companies in that area had agreed to give the government land for the construction of the airport.
“We have secured enough land to expand Kerenga Airstrip to a fully-fledged airport. I have instructed Roads Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen to work with his technical team to plan the expansion of the facility,” said Ruto.
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“The process to curve out an initial 600 acres for expansion of Kericho town is now complete and we are working on another 1,000 acres as we plan to upgrade the town to a city status and open the space for development.”
Kerenga Airstrip currently has a runway of 1.2 kilometres. It is expected to start accommodating light planes with a maximum of 37 passengers once the runway is expanded to a length of 2 kilometres.
