Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi now says that the cancelling of the proposals by Adani Group, an Indian conglomerate, in the energy and aviation sectors could not have come at a better time.

Speaking outside Parliament on Thursday, November 21 shortly after President William Ruto announced the decision to scrap all Adani deals, CS Mbadi said the Public Private Partnership (PPP) proposals were still at conceptualisation stage.

“We were still at the procurement process and the negotiations had not began. For JKIA, we were doing due diligence. For me it is timely, it is stopped at a time when we don’t have legal challenges,” Mbadi noted.

According to Mbadi, the government has been doing due diligence on the Privately-Initiated Proposals (PiP), and that a report from different partners and stakeholders over the same had raised queries, especially around the procurement process.

“Let me make it clear that PPP is a very important process and is necessary and timely. However, there are processes to be followed when procuring,” the CS said. “The Adani deals have been through Privately-Initiated Proposals (PiP) and the beauty is that it can be stopped at any stage before negotiations are concluded.”

Adani Group was poised to win the deal to mordernise Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at KSh260 billion, as well as upgrade Kenya’s power infrastructure at KSh95 billion.

Ruto’s cancellation of the Adani deal came hours after the United States indicted billionaire Gautam Adani and other executives for their alleged roles in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme.

According to the U.S Department of Justice, Adani – who is the founder and chairman of Adani Group, his nephew Sagar Adani and six other business executives promised more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials in order to secure solar energy contracts.

Raila, Wandayi egg on their face

This decision has left former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi with egg on their face.

Raila had defended Adani Group, emphasising that it has a wonderful track record.

“When I was the Prime Minister of Kenya, I was introduced to Adani by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then Chief Minister of Gujarat,” said Raila. 

On the morning of the day the head of state cancelled the Adani deal, CS Wandayi was defending the Adani deals, insisting that indictment in the U.S did not mean indictment in Kenya.

Marakwet West MP Timothy Kipchumba termed this as “monumental embarrassment” to the government.

“It was an embarrassment of monumental proportions. This was a deal that everyone in government defended, including former Prime Minister Raila Odinga,” the lawmaker said. “Today morning, the Cabinet Secretary for Energy Opiyo Wandayi was defending Adani.