The Kenyan parliament yesterday rejected a bid for Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to be excluded from being part of the operating entities being created in the plan to nationalise Kenya Airways.
The National Aviation Management Bill, 2020 seeks to create the Kenya Aviation Corporation whose operating entities would be KAA, KQ, and Aviation Investment Corporation. The National Assembly Transport committee, chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing, says that KAA would not lose its autonomy in the proposed aviation holding company.
In its report following a second phase of public participation, the committee says there is no cause for alarm since there is no KAA-KQ merger. “The Bill does not seek to merge Kenya Airways and the Kenya Airports Authority within the meaning of the Competition Act but to consolidate the aviation assets so as to effectively compete in the international market,” the report reads.
A group of lawyers led by the Law Society of Kenya sought that KAA be separated in the proposed revitalisation of the national carrier. They argued that KQ, being a loss-making entity, should not be merged with the profitable KAA in any arrangement that burdens the latter.