Former Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga has expressed disappointment over the cancellation of the Adani airport deal, according to a report by NairobiLeo.co.ke, a digital media house in Kenya. Raila Odinga, who is the leader of ODM (Orange Democratic Movement), was speaking at the third National Executive Retreat in Karen on Friday, the report said. He lamented that Kenya lost a strategic opportunity as the deal fell through.

The report said Odinga singled out political manoeuvring as the key reason for the deal’s collapse, warning that the fallout from the cancelled deal could affect Nairobi’s relevance. Kenya, he said, is strategically located and he expressed disappointment that the country was not able to move ahead with the airport contract. “I was very disappointed when we were not able to move on with the airport contract. When they brought in Adani, they brought all these politics, and the contract was cancelled. If that is not done, Nairobi will become dormant,” Raila Odinga said, according to NairobiLeo.co.ke.

Odinga was among the leaders who defended the Adani Group before the cancellation of the deal. Last year, Kenya President William Ruto ordered the cancellation of the Adani-JKIA expansion deal as well as the Adani-Ketraco deal while issuing the State of the Nation Address in Parliament, the report said. Speaking in Mombasa in October last year, Odinga said that Kenya’s economic challenges require Public-Private Partnerships to attract investments.

“Adani is a credible partner. They have proven their capabilities in projects that surpass what we have seen in East Africa,” he had said, according to NairobiLeo.co.ke.
The Kenyan leader had noted that Adani Group has been interested in investing in Kenya since 2010, but this interest was hindered by the lack of a proper legal framework for PPPs at the time.

“I have had the chance to interact with the PPP proposals in question, and it is my duty to state what I know about them. When I was the Prime Minister of Kenya, I was introduced to the Adani group of companies and its activities,” Odinga said, according to the report. “I want to say that there needs to be transparency when dealing with such issues; otherwise, we risk condemning very reputable companies. If there are individuals who have made mistakes, let them own up and admit it, but do not condemn innocent companies that are engaged in legitimate commercial transactions,” he added. Odinga served as Kenya’s Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013.