Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga has said he does not regret supporting proposed investments by the Adani Group that were cancelled by President William Ruto in November following a public outcry.
President Ruto made a U-turn on the controversial multi-billion dollar Adani Group deals after ordering the ministries of transport and energy to cancel contracts for the country's energy and aviation infrastructure.
During his State of the Nation address in November, the head of state cancelled the deals, saying the decision was based on credible evidence of corruption by the relevant authorities.
“I have stated in the past, and I reiterate today, that in the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take decisive action,” the president said.
Ruto orders cancellation of JKIA, Ketraco Adani deals
He went on: “Accordingly, I now direct - in furtherance of the principles enshrined in Article 10 of the Constitution on transparency and accountability, and based on new information provided by our investigative agencies and partner nations - that the procuring agencies within the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum immediately cancel the ongoing procurement process for the JKIA Expansion Public Private Partnership transaction, as well as the recently concluded KETRACO transmission line Public Private Partnership contract, and immediately commence the process of onboarding alternative partners.”
But during an interview on Citizen TV on Friday night, Mr Odinga said he has no regrets about supporting the Group, adding that the investor was only “a victim of vested commercial interests.”
“Certainly it was a good deal. People need to understand that the government cannot finance development projects on the basis of taxation. It is not sustainable at all. What other governments are doing is to attract private investors into some of these development projects,” Mr Odinga said.
The charges against Adani , he explained, “are because of competition in India for projects that’s why Adani is being charged in America about evading taxes; those are basically commercial issues.”
“Adani has worked for the Indian government even today. So, there are just misconceptions and vested commercial interests which are competing and that’s how Adani finds himself in that kind of situation,” added Mr Odinga.
He went on: “I have no regret supporting Adani investments because I know myself for a fact what has happened and where the reality is.”
Mr Odinga insisted that given the current financial status of the country, Public Private Partnership (PPP) was the only way out for cash-intensive projects.
Mr Odinga explained that Adani Group had implemented tremendous projects in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“In just 10 years, Modi has moved India’s economy from the tenth largest economy in the world to the fifth largest economy and now he intends to take it to the third largest economy.
“Only Germany and Japan are ahead of him and in just five years’ time India will be the third largest economy in the world,” the ODM leader said.
He pointed out that Mr Modi has built, during the ten-year period, 132,000 kilometres of railway line through public and private partnerships.
“He has put up highways, ports, and Airports built across India through Public, Private Partnerships and that’s what is also happening in Dubai.”
“So talking of Adani, go to Ahmedabad Tower, look at the Airport in Ahmedabad, go to New Delhi, look at the Airport, go to a Town called Mundra where they built a completely new Port, Airport and power plant - 4,900 mega watts of power.
“A sleeping village of 5000 people has shot up a town of half a million people because industries have come into that town,” added Mr Odinga.
Mr Odinga had earlier warned that public, private partnerships are the way to go for the country.
“If we plant doubts in our capacity to handle PPPs, we must be prepared for a prolonged period of development drought and risk being overtaken by our neighbours,” he warned.
He said that the Energy and airport projects, which have now been cancelled, presented a critical test that could make or break Kenya’s ability to compete in the field of infrastructure development for a considerable period.
