MPs want Government to own 100% of Kenya Airways

The National Assembly’s transport committee has rejected the proposal by Kenya Airways to take over the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

In their much-awaited report, the committee suggests that the airline should be fully nationalized with the government owning 100 percent stake.

According to the committee, given the Kenya Airways’ financial position, taking over JKIA would mean placing it under unknown financial future and Kenyans would be the biggest losers.

Kenya Airways has proposed to take over the running of JKIA as a measure that would help it out of the woods where it has been making a series of losses.

The national carrier went down to its knees when it first made a loss of more than 27 billion shillings.

The proposal to take over JKIA was met with a lot of resistance, leading to the airline abandoning the move even before the release of the report.

Kenya Airways private company listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange with the Treasury owning the majority of the shares.

Government of Kenya owns 48.9 percent of the shares, KQ lenders company 38.1 percent of the shares, KLM 7.8 percent of the shares, the employee share ownership plan 2.4 percent, and other individual shareholders 2.8 percent.

If the proposal will be adopted, the National Treasury will have to buy off shares from the shareholders, something that featured prominently in KQ’s last AGM.

To many Kenyans, KQ is a national company, owned by the government. The majority of Kenyans never knew that it is a private company with the Government of Kenya just being a shareholder.

But will the Government taking over bring Kenya Airways back to its feet? Some think it is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire itself given the rampant corruption right now in Government.