Larry Madowo, CS Murkomen in war of words over state of JKIA

Kenyan journalist Larry Madowo and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on Tuesday, April 16 engaged in a war of words over the state of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The CNN Correspondent had on April 10 highlighted his tribulations while using the JKIA on a rainy day. In a video, Madowo had shown how passengers are being rained on because JKIA lacks shades.

Terminal to taxi when it’s raining at JKIA pic.twitter.com/iWit7p3VGW
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) April 10, 2024

“Your leaders don’t experience this JKIA shame because they get picked up from the plane, to an exclusive government VIP section, and then straight into a waiting car. They don’t mix with the masses. But I’ll keep posting until things improve,” Madowo had said.

But in a rejoinder, CS Mukomen slammed the journalist of always focusing on highlighting the negatives and not the positives too.

“I saw Larry taking videos at the airport. I was laughing because Larry was with us in the country for the last 50 years when that airport was like that. Suddenly because he lives in ‘majuu’ his eyes are open and realizes that there is no shade when you exit JKIA. It is not news that JKIA does not have a canopy for shielding passengers, it is a fact,” Murkomen said in an interview with Citizen TV on Monday, April 15.

Murkomen added: “I want to tell Kenyans that by the time we are going to the next elections, we will have a new terminal at least complete or almost complete that will make JKIA a more competitive airport with facilities that are enviable and make us an aviation hub.”

But Madowo did not take the CS’s comments lightly, setting the record straight that he has not started complaining about JKIA’s poor state during the Kenya Kwanza government.

“Premium gaslighting, deflecting & trivializing the issues: 1. JKIA is 66 – 30yrs older than me 2. You don’t need a pre-election terminal to build canopies for the existing ones 3. I didn’t “suddenly” discover how bad JKIA is, I’ve complained about it for 10 yrs,” Madowo retorted.

Madowo went further to share tweets he made in previous years on the state of the airport. In the past, Madowo has complained about the poor drainage, lack of passenger canopies and incompetence of customs officers.