Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale on Thursday, July 13, confirmed that the Cabinet has approved to close the Italian Space Station in Malindi County.
The Luigi Broglio-Malindi Space Centre, also known as San Marco, is a spaceport owned and operated by the Italian Space Agency.
In what could kick a diplomatic storm between Kenya and Italy, Duale told the Implementation Committee of the National Assembly that the centre will not be allowed to operate if they don't share the data collected with Kenya.
“ It is in the interest of the Italian government to come quickly and fix this problem on behalf of the Italian space agency.” CS Duale said.
The space centre sits on 3.5 hectares of land belonging to the Kenyan military and has been operating without involving the Kenyan Space Agency, according to Duale.
The Malindi Centre was established in 1962 and has been used to launch sounding rockets and archive satellite data.
San Marco is the only space facility in the country.
The Defence CS maintains that Kenya is keen to get a fair share of the proceeds realised from the facility as per the agreement between the two countries.
"As the representatives of the people, the House has a key role in ensuring that the agreement signed between the Government of Kenya and the Government of the Italian Republic on the Luigi Broglio - Malindi Space Centre in Kenya is fully implemented," Duale told MPs.
Duale blames the current stalemate on what he terms a "lack of transparency and accountability from the Italian Space Agency".
He told the House committee that he will not visit Rome anytime soon to resolve the matter until Rome honours its part of the agreement.
However, Committee Chairman Hilary Kosgei is set to visit Italy to try and find a lasting solution on the matter.
