Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has defended Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen after faulty backup generators at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) failed to provide power during Sunday night’s blackout, disrupting airport operations.
Gachagua, who dismissed calls for the Cabinet Secretary’s dismissal, instead blamed the previous administration for purchasing subpar airport generators.
Speaking on Thursday, December 14 during the Kimalel Goat Auction and Cultural Festival in Baringo County also graced by President William Ruto, Gachagua stated that several political factions were calling for Murkomen to resign over matters that were beyond his control.
“CS Kipchumba has made a lot of announcements regarding what is going on, and he is trying. I saw others criticizing him and calling for his resignation because the generator refused to work at JKIA.
“Did Kipchumba buy those generators? The previous regime bought them and they were fake. When someone tries to turn them on, they turn off,” he revealed.
Gachagua, presumably referring to Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei’s criticism of Murkomen over the series of blackouts at JKIA, urged leaders to spare him the criticism.
He claimed that ‘enemies of progress’ were attempting to blame the current administration for the outages that have raised concerns among Kenyans about JKIA’s operations.
As a result, Gachagua charged Murkomen with ensuring that reforms are implemented at JKIA, including personally overseeing the procurement of a new generator, which would contribute to the airport’s improvement to world-class standards.
“Kipchumba, look for your generator and install it, leave those people alone. Stop attacking leaders anyhow, we found so many spoilt things, which we are trying to fix. They are trying to force that load on us and they bought that fake generator with a lot of money and if it is put on a bit of load, it starts emitting smoke.
“Now Kipchumba must make corrections and install a new generator as well as make changes and build a new modern airport that will give us respect worldwide,” he directed.
