Kenyan President William Ruto announced on Thursday that he had instructed the suspension of the procurement process for the expansion of the country’s main airport, which had included a proposal from the Adani Group.
Ruto said he has also directed the cancellation of a 30-year, $736-million public-private partnership agreement that the energy ministry had recently entered into with a unit of the Adani Group for the construction of power transmission lines, Reuters reported on Thursday.
“I have directed agencies within the ministry of transport and within the ministry of energy and petroleum to immediately cancel the ongoing procurement,” Ruto said in his state of the nation address, attributing the decision to “new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations”.
Adani Energy Solutions, under Gautam Adani’s control, entered into a 30-year, $736 million public-private partnership agreement with the Kenya Electrical Transmission Company in October. However, a court suspended the contract in the same month.
Kenya’s high court had temporarily blocked a proposed deal for Adani Group to lease the country’s main airport for 30 years in exchange for expanding it, Reuters had reported earlier.
The country’s main bar association and the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) had told the court that the country could independently raise the $1.85 billion required to upgrade the airport.
The proposed deal had run into rough weather over strike by worker unions, who alleged that it will lead to job losses and bring in non-local workers.
Earlier on November 21, Kenya’s energy minister said there was no bribery or corruption involved in the award of a contract to a unit of Adani Group to build power lines in the East African nation.
Energy Minister Opiyo Wandayi had said the deal was above board.
“There has been no case of corruption or bribery as far as PIP (Privately-initiated proposal) with Adani Energy Solutions is concerned,” he told Kenya’s Senate committee on finance.
These decisions were made following the indictment of Adani by US prosecutors for allegedly conspiring with executives of a former New York-listed company to devise a $265 million bribery scheme aimed at influencing Indian officials and promoting their solar energy business.
US prosecutors have charged Gautam Adani and seven others with alleged bribery and fraud related to renewable energy projects in India.
The Adani Group has denied the charges in statement issued on Thursday.
“The Spokesperson of Adani Group states that the allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied,” the port-to-energy conglomerate’s spokesperson said in a release.
It added that it would seek “all possible legal recourse”.
