Jomo Kenyatta International Airport changes good but hold culprits to account

Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau may be the only Kenyan impressed by the way the fire that gutted the international arrivals unit of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was handled last week.

It might be instructive that the mandarins at police headquarters saw it fit to replace its command at JKIA and gave the new boss a wider mandate.

That sets the pace for the rest of government to do the same, if only to send the message that lethargy will not be tolerated. For despite the airport getting a certificate from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) indicating its safety management procedures were satisfactory, the consensus among witnesses of the incident is that its handling left much to be desired.

Take the case of the fire itself. The consensus is that it started small in an office, but was inexplicably allowed to morph into an inferno threatening the whole airport. That took time — as much as between 30 and 40 minutes — before the fire engines arrived at the scene.

Far from bringing relief, the arrival of the fire trucks provided scenes straight from the movies as they lacked the requisite ladders while the hydrants did not have enough pressure to reach the fires that were raging on the second floor.

It is worth noting that the International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations require that fire fighting vehicles at an airport arrive at the scene of fire inside three minutes, yet, those at JKIA took at least ten times as long.

If that does not amount to gross negligence then language has lost its meaning.

Doubts have also emerged on whether KAA had a prior arrangement to secure assistance in rescue and fire fighting from local agencies such as the city’s fire brigade, police and others so that in the moment of need, all the agencies know exactly how to swing into action. Had that been done, the chaotic scenes witnessed at the airport last week would have been avoided.

The priority now is to return everything to normalcy without letting those responsible go off scot-free.