Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport Davis Chirchir when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Roads, Transportation and Housing at the County Hall Nairobi on September 13, 2024.
Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir gave a ringing defence of the Adani Group that is bidding for multi-billion shilling contracts, even as the Indian conglomerate continues to stoke controversy over its operations across the world.
Mr Chirchir told members of the National Assembly Adani, which has bid for a Sh230 billion upgrade of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and recently signed another 30-year Sh96 billion energy deal with Kenya, has not been blacklisted in any country and is tax compliant.
The CS told the House according to the due diligence done by the Kenya government, Adani has not engaged in any acts of corruption and is not insolvent.
"Adani has not been engaged in any corruption that we have so far found, is not insolvent and is tax compliant in all jurisdiction. It has not defaulted on its social security and employment benefits and its directors have not been convicted for any offence related to professional conduct in a period of five years preceding to the submission of their proposal," Mr Chirchir said defending the decision by Kenya to consider the firm in public-private partnership agreements.
However, despite the assurances by the CS, President Ruto administration’s dealings with Adani have been challenged in court, which has since suspended implementation of the controversial contracts.
Last month, the high court suspended the deal between state-owned Kenya Electrical Transmission Company (KETRACO) and Adani Energy Solutions to build and operate power infrastructure including transmission lines.
The high court directed the government to halt the 30-year agreement with Adani Energy Solutions until it determines a case brought by Law Society of Kenya challenging the public-private partnership agreement.
Earlier in September, the high court had also temporarily suspended the proposed plans to lease JKIA to Adani for 30 years in exchange for expanding it.
On Wednesday, Mr Chirchir told the House that in full compliance of the court orders stopping the deal, the government has not entered into any concession agreement with Adani.
He told MPs all information regarding the deal has been furnished to all stakeholders and the Senate.
Mr Chirchir was responding to a question by Gatanga MP Edward Muriu who sought to know whether the government has any agreement with Adani Group regarding the takeover of JKIA.
The MP also challenged the CS to table evidence of public participation for the proposed takeover, explanation whether the agreement complied to constitutional provision on governance and full public disclosure of all information regarding the controversial deal.
Mr Muriu challenged the minister’s assertion giving Adani a clean bill of health.
“I’m surprised by the information from the CS that Adani has no corruption case and is tax compliant because according to documents, Adani has been barred from doing business in Australia, India purely for the same reasons we are talking about,” Mr Muriu said.
The lawmaker was challenged to table the dossier but upon tabling it, Speaker Moses Wetangula overruled it saying its authenticity could not be confirmed.
“I have checked the documents and they are not admissible. If you want them considered, you know what to do,” Mr Wetang’ula said.
Apart from the court order halting the execution of the deal, the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing has also called for a forensic audit of the deal.
The committee wants Auditor General Nancy Gathungu to probe how Adani was handed the deal and warned Kenya Airports Authority from sealing the agreement before the forensic audit report is tabled and discussed by the House.
As the controversy raged in the Kenyan Parliament, India’s Adani group is courting more controversy in Bangladesh where it has effected power cuts against the neighbouring nation, citing a backlog of overdue payments estimated by the group to be about $850 million.
Adani Power has been supplying Dhaka with electricity from its 1,600 megawatt capacity plant in eastern India and had threatened to disconnect the entire supply if the mounting bills were not sorted.
Under the control of Gautam Adani — among Asia’s richest men with a wealth of $102 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — the sprawling Indian conglomerate with interests from power to ports is no stranger to controversy.
Adani Group has been subject to multiple government investigations that have alleged money laundering and corruption, but it was a private investigation in 2023 that may have come closest to deflating Gautam Adani’s empire.
New York financial firm Hindenburg Research last year accused Adani Group of engaging in a long-running stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme.
Citing a two-year investigation that included site visits and interviews with insiders, Hindenberg noted that most of Adani’s personal wealth has come amid gains in the market value of the conglomerate’s seven main listed companies.
The value of these firms ballooned by an average of more than 800% in just three years while the companies took on substantial debt that put them under near-term pressure to meet financial obligations, Hindenberg alleged.
The research group also leveled accusations that Adani family members have used offshore shell companies to generate illegitimate revenue for Adani Group firms and siphon money from the conglomerate’s publicly listed entities. Shell companies linked to Adani Group have also been used to hold vast swathes of Adani firm shares, in violation of Indian securities regulations, Hindenberg alleged.
Hindenberg is a so-called short seller, a type of trading firm that takes positions betting on the decline in value of a company’s shares, with short sellers often making public statements and releasing research to back up their bets.
Adani Group has resolutely denied Hindenberg’s claims. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) however also alleged that Hindenberg colluded with another U.S. investor in betting against Adani stock, in violation of Indian regulations. Hindenberg in turn denied those allegations.
In March this year, Bloomberg News reported the US had expanded the scope of an investigation of India's Adani Group to also cover its founder, Gautam Adani, and whether the company may have engaged in bribery.
According to the report, prosecutors were probing whether an Adani entity or people linked to the company, including Gautam Adani, were involved in paying officials in India for favorable treatment on an energy project.
But in a response, Adani Group told Bloomberg News: “We are not aware of any investigation against our chairman.”
