Adani says it will not bring employees from India to manage JKIA

Adani Group has refuted claims that it will bring employees from India to manage the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), should its proposal be approved.

The company says all Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) employees will be retained.

‘’Preference shall be given to locals in relation to employment for junior, middle level and senior executives positions where available. ‘’ the company says.

‘’Where there is no qualified local candidate, AAHL will work to enhance skills of the local workforce to enable them to fill these positions in future,‘’ it adds.

According to Adani, all the current KAA employees will be absorbed for a two-year transition period. During this time, employees will continue working under their current terms. After the two-year period, Adani will offer new employment contracts to these employees.

At the end of the two-year transition, Adani says KAA employees who do not accept Adani’s new employment offer will be transferred out of JKIA and redeployed by the KAA to the other airports in the country.

Recently, KAA workers went on strike over takeover bid by India’s Adani Group. The workers were objecting to a planned deal to lease JKIA to the Adani Group for 30 years in return for an investment of $1.85bn.

Despite the controversy surrounding it in Kenya, Adani Group, through its subsidiary Global Airports Operator L.L.C. (GAO), has already incorporated a step-down subsidiary company in Kenya, Airports Infrastructure PLC (AIP), as the Government of Kenya continues to review the Group’s Privately Initiated Proposal (PIP) to develop and expand JKIA through a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement.

Airports Infrastructure PLC (AIP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Adani Group, is poised to take on the operation, maintenance, development, design, construction, upgrade, modernisation, and management of JKIA if the PIP bid is successfully approved.  

Despite government assurances that the Adani deal will benefit the country, Kenya’s youth have their doubts.