Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen flagged off the resumption of the Kenya Airways flights to Eldoret after a ten-year break.
Speaking at the relaunch ceremony at the Eldoret International Airport the CS noted that Eldoret will be KQ’s 44th destination.
“We are here to celebrate another milestone in the transport sector, when we came to office, we promised the people of Kenya that apart from ensuring that air transport is affordable we also want it to be accessible,” he said.
“We started by operationalizing Kakamega airstrip and now we have direct flights from Wilson to Kakamega, Wilson to Kabunde and another one from Wilson to Migori,” he noted.
The CS said that all these flights are opening up space for Kenyans to be able to interact and conduct real time businesses.
“As a Ministry we are trying to complete 12 airstrips across the country that will make it possible for us to travel around this nation,” he added.
“KQ has been on the path of growth and the government for the last 10 years has been consistently supporting KQ to ensure that we do not lose this important brand for our country,” said Murkomen.
The CS added that KQ is not just a private company operating transport but it is also a very strategic national carrier making it possible for the country to grow in areas like tourism and making it possible for the country to become accessible to the rest of the world.
“KQ enables most of us to access different parts of Africa and the Ministry is in process of talks with other airlines in the continent to make sure we have a Pan African airline that is able to connect to Africa, as Africa is one of the poorest continents in terms of interconnectivity,” he noted.
Murkomen added that the African countries through the African Union have put effort into making sure African countries are more accessible and KQ has played its part with other airlines to make this continent more accessible.
“This flight will be five times a week and I have no doubt in my mind that in less than six months it will be seven and then fourteen hopefully in the shortest time possible,” he noted.
“This city is not just about sports, though it forms a very important factor with the ecosystem of athletes, managers, coaches and other people coming as researchers, sports play an important role,” Murkomen said.
He thanked Governor Jonathan Bii for what he is doing in the agricultural sector and development of the industrial park working together with the national government on value addition and added so far, agriculture is a concern and that is how other investors and business people would be able to come to Eldoret.
“We have a strategic facility, the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, one of the best hospitals in the country and we have medical tourists who come from all parts of the country. The efforts that the government is doing now is to expand the hospital to make it possible for people coming for medical treatment to fly directly to Eldoret,” he said.
“We have the plan to expand the runway to 4.2km. It is my hope in the coming financial year we should be able to put in some resources in the budget and begin the process of expanding the runway,” noted the CS.
He requested the KQ Managing Director & CEO- Mr. Allan Kilavuka to also think of the fare markup of KQ to make sure it is also affordable to hustlers so that the hustlers can be able to take the Pride of Africa.
On his part, the KQ Managing Director & CEO- Mr. Allan Kilavuka pointed out that KQ is one of the biggest ambassadors for this country as it bears the name Kenya.
“Eldoret is important to us because it is a very large town and soon to be city and the reason we have decided to come here is because there is demand and there is need for this additional capacity that we are bringing here,” he said.
“The assurance we want to give to you is that we will maintain the highest possible service standards and that you will enjoy this service that we are going to offer to the residents,” noted Kilavuka.
He noted that it is KQ’s commitment to provide the warm African hospitality that it is renowned for and also to make sure that the passengers get to the places where they want to go at all times.
“Working together with Jambo Jet we will help to rejuvenate and support the economy of this region,” he added.
By Judy Too
