Improve service delivery at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport

The captain, through the public address system, readied us for landing: Nairobi is warm and dry, he said. After more than seven hours in the skies, many travellers like me, look forward to touch down.

So, as the plane taxied on the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport tarmac, peeping through the window, most passengers on the Dubai-Nairobi flight could see that the runway was wet and the rain was coming down in torrents. Most of us gave no thought of that.

But when the cabin crew asked the close to 300 of us to disembark from the aircraft and walk nearly 50m to a bus taking us to the arrival terminal, we were aghast: Couldn’t she see that it was raining? I asked myself.

I have been to airports and can’t understand why on earth JKIA lacks the jet bridge passengers use to board or disembark from aircraft, especially in bad weather.

Despite boasting a state-of-the-art terminal, most jet bridges at JKIA, don’t function and passengers must make do with the uncomfortable bus ride to the arrivals terminal.

Consider an elderly person or a woman with a baby or people carrying some additional items with them walking through the pouring rain. Going through JKIA is like a walk through the jungle lined with predators.

Getting visas processed (something most tourist destinations no longer demand of the weary passengers) is a laborious exercise with endless queues especially if you are unlucky to arrive at peak hour.

One glance at the glum looks from the Immigration officials and you know what they want to quicken things; a greasing of the palm.

Past the immigration officers a few dollars less, passengers end at the baggage collection area, the only section where I saw some work going on, but not without the odd incident. A passenger even complained that his bag had been opened and suspects something is missing.

Your sigh of relief is short-lived because you are soon met by predatory officers from KRA, who hand you a dose of “Kenyan treatment”.

They demand that each passenger open their bags “to see what the visitors have brought with them” (sic).

Forget the fact that many visitors have been travelling for close to 20 or so hours depending on the place of origin and that the bag was checked at the port of departure. You bend over and open your baggage. You can see belongings splattered on the floor.

I have been to many countries and such controls on bags are only done when there is a degree of suspicion.

Not here. In fact, it is tempting to think of this more as a conduit for rent-seeking than a control to check on contraband or illicit drugs.

Once done with the shakedown, you are eager to dash into the arms of waiting family and friends. But there is no shelter.

Even those keen to take a taxi, must walk several hundred metres, risking getting harassed by illegal taxi brokers lining the lane. I am told this is for security reasons.

Please note that the VIPs never go through this hell. All you need to do is look important and the airport orderlies will fall over themselves to “assist” you; at a fee, of course.

Then there is the queue to pay for parking that usually stretches for a mile or so during peak hours because the software often malfunctions.

What makes airport arrivals in Nairobi a nightmare? First, Kenya Airport Authority, the parastatal mandated to operate the airports and airstrips has lost the plot. KAA is not in control of key airport operations.

Internal Security, the Immigration and Customs departments are having a field day harassing passengers.

Elsewhere even in Tanzania, airports are run like hotels where the passenger’s comfort and convenience and of course security, are at the centre of everything.

At JKIA, civil servants go after petty controls and fail to see the bigger picture. If the experience at JKIA is the first impression a visitor gets about what Kenya can offer, then we better think again.

The experience at the airport is a complete turn off to even the hardnosed of visitors, however pricey the experience at our famed game parks and game reserves is.

Strive Masiyiwa one of Africa’s most successful entrepreneurs and the owner of Econet Communications recently narrated a story on his Facebook page using the analogy of hunting a buffalo.

Hunting this, one of the Big Five is no mean no task. The hunter must stay focused to accomplish his mission. In the story, a partner of the hunter didn’t show the same passion and the focus as the hunter.

He unwittingly threw a spanner in the works by shooting at a passing rabbit forgetting that the main target was the buffalo.

The buffalo escaped.

Unfortunately, the people manning JKIA just like the hunter’s friend in Mr Masiyiwa’s story forget the main focus and instead get diverted by personal needs such as rent-seeking that undermine customer satisfaction and efficient service delivery.

And yes, whoever designed the new international arrivals terminal should take some lessons on airport design. It is a big let-down.