The National Government Coordination Secretariat (NGCS) and The Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary (OPCS) team who conducted field verification visit to inspect priority government projects in Uasin Gishu County, have praised the Model Context Protocol (MCP) projects at Eldoret International Airport, noting that they are up to standard to ensure air safety within Eldoret controlled atmosphere, the whole country and beyond.
MCP projects include the Supply, installation and commissioning of a Very High Frequency (VHF) and Directional Finder (VDF), a remote position and extension of the Area Control Centre (ACC) and Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) and the Air Traffic Management (ATM) System.
Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) in charge of maintenance, Alfred Obuny explained that the VDF system plays a very crucial role in the aviation industry by enabling the air controllers to have situational awareness in their controlled atmosphere.
He noted that, through the integrated system the technical team is able to trace any frequency interference to the airport’s specific frequency which is 119.4 MHz.
He pointed out that the Air Traffic Management (ATM) System is very vital in Air Traffic Control (ATC), which is an integrated system to monitor Kenyan atmosphere and beyond and to manage air traffic like separation of aircrafts in order to avoid delays which cause inconveniences to passengers and also saving on fuel.
“We bought the whole system to cover the whole country, each airport has its own air space. When separating flights manually the distance between them is 8 miles, but with an ATM radar system, the distance is reduced to 5 miles which is effective to accommodate more flights,” noted Obuny.
The KCAA maintenance officer further mentioned that VDF systems help pilots, air traffic controllers, and search and rescue teams locate aircraft and provide navigation guidance especially where other navigation systems are unavailable or unreliable.
In response to hacking and frequency interference issues raised by the NGCS and OPCS team, Obuny commended the government support through the Communication Authority of Kenya, noting that they have been quick in responding to the issues raised by the KCAA in regard to frequencies.
In addition, the aviation staff have been fully trained on cyber security awareness and required safety minimum in order to counter hacking issues.
The OPCS Chief of Staff Joseph Busiega and NGCS secretary Alfred Diru reaffirmed the government’s commitment through the National Development Implementation Committee (NDIC) to boost civil aviation development and management to ensure airport security and safety within the Kenyan atmosphere and beyond.
The team called on the civil aviation authority to integrate all the ATM systems to overcome several problems which may occur due to software issues and also consider putting more servers instead of the current two, the main at Mlolongo and a satellite in Mombasa.
By Ekuwam Sylvester
