Kenya picked a Chinese firm for a $2.9-billion upgrade of its biggest airport, sources said, two years after a concession deal with Adani Group was cancelled, according to a Bloomberg report.
The East African nation awarded China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC) an engineering, procurement and construction contract to update and expand the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the sources said.
The deal cements Chinese companies’ grip on major infrastructure projects in Kenya, where CCCC’s portfolio already includes a new railway, a 60,000-seat stadium, a toll road and a convention centre.
The airport project will be partly funded by the proceeds of privatisation invested in a newly-formed National Infrastructure Fund. Construction work is expected to begin this month, the sources said. Kenya will also finance the project through commercial loans backed by securitising an air-passenger service charge.
An unsolicited $2.6-billion bid by Gautam Adani to operate the Nairobi airport for three decades sparked protests and an aviation workers’ strike in 2024, forcing Kenyan President William Ruto’s government to cancel the deal.