Kenya airport fire caused by electric fault

The fire that burnt out the whole of arrivals section of Kenya's main airport, the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in early August was caused by an electric fault, a government official said on Friday. Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure Michael Kamau was for the first time making public the findings of an investigation report by the taskforce appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta to find out the cause of fire and make recommendations on how the Kenya Airports Authority can improve its fire avoidance and fighting capability. "The conclusion of the report is that the fire was caused by an electric fault, which was beyond any human detection," said Kamau. The taskforce included security agencies from foreign countries, said Kamau, to help improve local security agents' capacity to investigate possible terrorist activity as the cause of fire. "The report is now completed; we shall make it public soon. The report will be reviewed internally within the government. The report has given use important lessons," he added. The fire broke out in the morning of August 7, paralyzing air transport in Kenya. Flights were postponed for days while others were diverted to the neighboring Uganda and Tanzania. Speculation has been high over what caused the fire, with suggestions that it was a terrorism act while others said it was sabotage. "I can confirm that the fire was not a result of a terrorist act," said Kamau. Instead of repairing the badly burnt arrivals section, the government has decided to demolish the facility. "We shall demolish the facility and put up a building for other purposes including a hotel on its upper floors," said Kamau. Kenya has already started modernization of the airport, which was built in early 70s and was initially meant to handle only 2 million passengers against the 8 million passengers the airport handled in 2012. The fire caused massive losses for the national carrier Kenya Airways that reported a loss of 4 million U.S. dollars as a result of the fire. Transport and duty-free shops operators also reported massive losses. But the passenger numbers being handled by the airport have returned to normality. Kamau said the airport handled 400,000 passengers in the month of August, the same number of visitors handled during the same month last year. "We are back to normal in terms of handling passengers. We are very grateful for the help that we have received including from foreign governments," he said. He singled out the African Development Bank for arranging "quick credit" that is now being used to finance the ongoing repair works.