How KQ's Sh387b dream crashed before takeoff

Kenya Airways CEO Allan Kilavuka before the National Assembly Public Debt and Privatization Committee at Parliament on September 30, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

A parliamentary committee on Tuesday heard that a Kenya Airways (KQ) project, premised on certain economic and market assumptions, turned into one of the most expensive ventures that did not take off as expected.

The airline's chief executive officer Allan Kilavuka told the National Assembly committee on Public Debt and Privatisation that the project dubbed Mawingu valued at about Sh387 billion (USD3billion) was an expansion gamble, whose objective was dominance for the national carrier in the African aviation market, which was not attained.