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{
    "id": 1285676,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1285676/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 98,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I wish to request for further responses to the issue of KQ. This is very sad. The thought of losing KQ should perish. An international airline like the one we have in Kenya, is actually the face of the country especially when you are out of the country. We should learn from the best international practices. Airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines which has been at the same level with KQ for a long time, is doing pretty well. We are to blame. I am not a big sympathizer of the former President, Uhuru Kenyatta. Nonetheless, when President Uhuru Kenyatta advised the last Parliament – the 12th Parliament – to allow KQ to operate Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), he was learning from the best international practices. Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is operated by the Ethiopian Airlines and it is profitable. I appeal to colleagues that we should allow this matter to come to the Senate and the National Assembly; so that we allow KQ to operate JKIA and probably Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu airports. Could the Committee come with a position of Government on whether they are willing to do another attempt? The second comment is, if we do not fix this, this thing appears to have become a cash cow. There are some owners of shares within KQ, who know that every financial year, they will be benefiting from the cash which is normally injected in. Perhaps this report should tell us these people who are leasing aircrafts. We are told some big political families in this country own aircrafts. I have not said which family but they own aircrafts which they lease to us. We cannot surrender the common wealth of the nation to a few families. This has to be clear. We want Kenya to go on. I flew KQ when it was still a small thing. I fly it today and I would like my grandchildren to fly it even when it is better."
}