The government is set to reopen Terminal 1C at the Jomo Kenyatta International Aiport (JKIA) at the end of the month as part of the new facelift measures taken by the Ministry of Transport.
Transport Principal Secretary Mohamed Daghar while speaking on Wednesday, June 19, revealed that the reopening of the terminal would help ease the traffic of international arrivals.
He emphasised that it was part of the government's plan to expand JKIA to accommodate more passengers. He added that the government targets serving over 25 million passengers by the year 2050.
Additionally, he revealed that the airport had been fitted with a roof canopy from Terminal 1A to Terminal 1D. Daghar also revealed that there was a stable power supply to avoid blackouts as experienced early in the year.
"You will notice that we have taken excessive repairs at our facility. We have restored stable power supply at all the terminals and we have also addressed the infrastructure challenges," he added.
Daghar also added that Terminal 1E will also be closed for renovations. The terminal had previously been closed temporarily after a fire occurred.
Terminal IC is designated for international departures while Terminal 1E is reserved for international arrivals.
On the other hand, Caleb Kositany, the Chairperson of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) also revealed that the authority had dealt with the previous frequent blackouts and the matter had been resolved.
"We had issues with electricity, issues with leakages but we have sorted this out, especially the electricity," he added.
This comes after several complaints from Kenyans led by CNN journalist Larry Madowo who had challenged Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen to fix the infrastructure at the international airport.
During the heavy rainfall experienced in March and April, several parts of the airport were flooded hindering activities and further destroying the infrastructure.
"Landing in the rain, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, no shelter but this is not even the worst part. Look at this situation, international guests have to deal with this."
"It gets worse, completely waterlogged. What is this honestly, how embarrassing is this for an international airport, we can do better than this," Madowo lamented in April.
