President William Ruto is in the United States. He departed Kenya on Sunday evening on board a Boeing 737-700 business jet. This is not a plane that is owned by the Kenyan government of by a Kenyan company. The Boeing 737-700 business jet is operated by the Royal Jet of Dubai.
This is an airline that is based at Abu Dhabi in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE). To take Ruto to the US and back, Kenyan taxpayers will pay a bill of about Sh. 200 million. A breakdown of the charges that the Royal Jet of Dubai offers for the Boeing 737-700 business jet shows that the plane is chartered at $18,000 (equivalent to Sh. 2.4 million per hour).
The services of this plane are targeted at the elite markets of Europe and the USA. According to a quotation that was provided by the company that owns the jet to the Standard Media Group, a one-way flight from Nairobi to Atlanta, Georgia, where Ruto landed costs $748,600 (Sh. 98 million). A return leg costs the same amount, bringing the total cost for a chartered Nairobi-Atlanta return flight to around Sh. 196 million. This quotation is for the 18-hour flight to and from Atlanta.
Why Kenya Airways is abbreviated as KQ and not as KA Â
With President Ruto expected to fly to Washington DC, the amount of fees to be paid to the Dubai company will cross the Sh. 200 million mark.
This figure could get even higher if the company charges for the Abu Dhabi to Nairobi flight it made to pick up Ruto, and the Nairobi to Abu Dhabi return leg. The Boeing 737-700 business jet left Abu Dhabi at 9.03 am (8.03am Kenyan time) on Saturday. It landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 12.40pm on Saturday.
The plane then left the JKIA with Ruto on board on Sunday at 9.48pm. It landed at Santiago de Compostela in Spain at 5.30am local time (7.30am Kenyan time). This leg of the flight took eight hours and 42 minutes. The plane, after refueling, left Santiago de Compostela in Spain for the second leg of the flight to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that took about nine hours.
We need to have our leader travel safely and comfortably. We cannot afford to lose another important person for Kenya in a plane crush.