Speaker rules that the Transport, Public Works and Housing committee is the right team to handle the proposed deal
The Transport committee had asked the Speaker to rule against the PIC investigations into the KAA-KQ deal saying the committee was overstepping its mandate.
The Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir-chaired PIC last week ordered that the deal be stopped pending the conclusion of investigations by his team.
National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has stopped a parliamentary watchdog committee from investigating the proposed takeover of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) by struggling national carrier Kenya Airways.
Instead, Mr Muturi has ruled that the departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing is the right team to handle the proposed deal as opposed to the Public Investments Committee (PIC).
“It is clear that the issue of the takeover of JKIA by Kenya Airways is a matter of major government policy that falls under the mandate of the departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing.
“However, it would be important to note that the PIC may deal with the matter if this was a query arising from the examination of audited reports and accounts of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) or a special audit,” said Mr Muturi in response to a letter to Transport Committee chairman David Pkosing.
The committee had asked the Speaker to rule against the PIC investigations into the KAA-KQ deal saying the committee was overstepping its mandate.
The Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir-chaired PIC last week ordered that the deal be stopped pending the conclusion of investigations by his team.
Forensic audit
Mr Nassir directed KAA managing director Johnny Andersen not to proceed with the deal and asked Auditor-General Edward Ouko to conduct a special forensic audit into the proposed merger.
Mr Nassir has since tabled a preliminary report in Parliament where the PIC is asking MPs to pass a resolution stopping the proposed merger between KAA and KQ.
The matter had been listed for debate Thursday.
“Despite the Speaker’s ruling, we are going ahead with our investigations on KAA and KQ proposed deal given that we have asked the Auditor-General to conduct a special audit and we have also tabled a preliminary report for discussions,” he told the Business Daily.
In suspending the deal, the PIC said the takeover bid would render the profitable aviation agency, the KAA, bankrupt in a turn of events that now threatens to stall a process that was intended to hand the ailing airline a financial lifeline.
A Cabinet paper prepared last May had warned that KQ had less than a year to survive if the deal flopped and the carrier did not get a significant capital injection.
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