The World Bank said on Thursday it had approved a $203.5m loan to Kenya to fund its transport sector, part of which will help finance reconstruction at the country’s main airport, a major regional air hub damaged by fire last year.
In August a fire destroyed sections of Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, forcing suspension of international passenger flights and blocking a vital thoroughfare to east Africa.
Airlines resumed normal flights within days of the blaze but the extensive damage forced the government to set up a temporary passenger terminal and to promise that it would accelerate construction on a new terminal.
Before the fire, the airport, built in the 1970s to handle 2.5-million passengers annually, was struggling to handle more than 6-million people a year. Latest passenger figures were unavailable.
"The additional financing will ... also improve the preparedness of the Kenya Airports Authority to respond to disasters such as last year’s fire emergency," Diarietou Gaye, the World Bank’s director for Kenya, said in a statement.
Fire fighters were criticised for being too slow and inadequate to respond. Authorities were embarrassed by images of soldiers with only buckets of water to fight the big blaze.
The World Bank said some of the money would also be used to complete the expansion of two key road networks that connect Kenya, east Africa’s biggest economy, to neighbouring countries.
"It will also enable us to complete ongoing contracts for the upgrading of the two major trade and transport corridors to facilitate regional trade and integration," Mr Gaye said.
