President William Ruto has ordered the Ministry of Transport to cancel the proposed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) deal with Indian conglomerate Adani Group.

The government has been considering the proposal by the Adani Group, founded by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, to lease the country's main airport for 30 years in exchange for expanding it.

The public-private partnership (PPP) project sparked public outrage, with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and the Kenya Human Rights Commission challenging the deal in court, saying it was unaffordable, threatens job losses and does not offer value for money.

Ketraco dealPresident Ruto has also directed the Energy ministry to cancel the $700 million deal between State utility Ketraco and Adani Energy Solutions to build and operate power infrastructure, including transmission lines.

The President gave the orders when he was delivering his second State of the Nation Address in Parliament Thursday to defend his administration’s economic record.“I have stated in the past, and I reiterate today, that in the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take decisive action. Accordingly, I now direct - in furtherance of the principles enshrined in Article 10 of the Constitution on transparency and accountability, and based on new information provided by our investigative agencies and partner nations - that the procuring agencies within the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum immediately cancel the ongoing procurement process for the JKIA Expansion Public Private Partnership transaction, as well as the recently concluded Ketraco transmission line Public Private Partnership contract, and immediately commence the process of on boarding alternative partners,” President Ruto told Parliament in his State of the Nation address on Thursday.

In the PPP agreement with Ketraco, the Adani firm had proposed to build a new 206-kilometre Thika-Malaa- Konza line, 95-kilometre Rongai-Keringet-Chemosit link and approximately 98 kilometres for the Menengai-Ol-Kalou-Rumuruti conduit. It was also to build two substations — the 132kV Thurdiburo substation and the 400/220/132kV substation at Rongai.

The LSK also challenged the deal in court.

The two PPP projects were frozen by the High Court pending determination of the cases.

Bribery and fraudThe deals cancellations come as Gautam Adani, the billionaire chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world's richest people, was indicted in New York for his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

US prosecutors said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years and develop India's largest solar power plant project.

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