'Adani must go!': Virtual court chaos forces judge to postpone JKIA lease hearing
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani (inset).
A judge was forced to adjourn a hearing of a case challenging plans to lease the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to Adani Group after scores of people jammed the virtual hearing shouting “Adani Must Go!” and “JKIA is not for sale”.
High Court judge Bahati Mwamuye on Thursday apologised for the
inconvenience and pushed the hearing to October 22, after the noise became too much.
The judge also directed the hearing to be conducted in physical court.
“The hearing of case cannot proceed due to the level of noises in the background on the virtual platform. Accordingly, the matter is stood over to Tuesday, October 22, at 11am in open court,” said the judge.
Besides the shouting, some members of the virtual audience clogged the court chat with similar messages.
In the matter, activist Tony Gachoka, together with Mount Kenya Jurist, Wiper Democratic Movement, Jubilee Party and Democratic Action Party-Kenya (DAP) have challenged plans to lease the JKIA to the Indian conglomerate.
The petitioners have pleaded with the court to stop the government from approving any concession agreement with Adani Group over the Airport.
“That pending hearing and determination of this Application/petition an order of stay be issued to suspend the implementation of Heads of terms of the concession Agreement dated 28th August, 2024 relating to JKIA between the Kenya Aiprorts Authority and Adani Airport Holdings,” the petition stated.
Mr Gachoka said the Privately Initiated Project (PIP) for JKIA submitted by Adani Airport Holdings on March 1, 2022 is fraudulent and unlawful as it violates relevant provisions of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act and the constitution.
He said the KAA did not conduct any public participation after receiving the proposal from the Adani Group and issuance of a positive appraisal for the project to be approved.
In a separate case, Adani Holdings wants the cases dismissed arguing that they are premature because they seek to stop a project that is still at the due-diligence stage and is yet to be approved.
Adani explained that is seeks to improve JKIA to a world-class airport.
The investors claim they developed interest in investing and improving JKIA following media reports on the poor status of the airport, and lodged the privately initiated proposal with the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) on March 1, 2024.
“In the proposal, the 5th respondent (Adani Airports Holdings ltd) gave a detailed analysis of the project delivery plan, a justification for using the privately initiated proposal (PIP) method, the value for money and affordability of the project, the positive impact of the proposed PIP method and also disclosed all the financial implications of the project,” the Indian firm said.
