Kipchumba Murkomen, the cabinet secretary for roads and transport, has played down the recent flooding at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), claiming the situation has been overblown.
Speaking on Tuesday night's episode of "The Explainer" on Citizen TV, the CS asserted that Kenyans were being "hyperbolic" about the entire incident following the release of a video last week that showed the chaos at the airport.
According to him, the issue was a "small thing" that lasted only twenty to thirty minutes before being resolved and had no bearing on the airport's routine operations.
"People are being hyperbolic, this was just a small section where the water came in for about 20-30 minutes and it was sorted because as the construction is going on top, some of the infrastructure because it is old, gets affected, one pipe got affected and that is why it leaked," Murkomen explained.
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"I am not saying that we will not have a blackout of 10-20 minutes or that we will not have a leakage, it will happen. Those are small things that happen in any existing institution…It never interrupted any services in the airport. People were moved to continue being checked in the line as we continued fixing the water leakage."
Leaks and blackouts, according to the CS, are not unusual events and can occur at the facility at any time.
He continued, saying that any disruption to infrastructure lasting 20 minutes or an hour was nothing to be alarmed about.
"Do I deny there was a leaking roof? No. Does it happen in our homes, buildings, airports? Yes! Should there be a catastrophe, a leakage, a burst of a pipe, a blackout because something tripped or a massive flood, it should be the shortest time possible. If it is electricity, 20 to 30 minutes is definitely short... one hour would have been short," he said.
When services at Terminal 1E were disrupted on Saturday and passengers were inconvenienced due to leaky roofs, the CS blamed the issue on aging infrastructure and assured that a thorough renovation of the tent structure was in progress. Immediate steps included installing gutters to reduce rainwater accumulation and a new roof.
"On top of the existing airport, especially terminal 1C, we are constructing a new arrival terminal and have built a new roof," he said.
"Amidst all the noise we are going to decommission Terminal 1E, the arrival tent that has been an embarrassment to all of us because it is a tent that was intended to serve for 2 to 3 years but has stayed for many years."
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