NAIROBI, Kenya: Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday scrapped controversial deals with India’s embattled Adani Group over Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and a state-owned electricity service.
During his annual state of the nation address, Ruto said he had directed the relevant agencies to “immediately cancel the ongoing procurement process for the JKIA Expansion Public Private Partnership transaction, as well as the recently concluded KETRACO transmission line”.
His announcement came a day after the Indian group’s founder Gautam Adani was charged in the United States with massive bribery and fraud.
Ruto said, “in the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take decisive action.”
Airport workers went on strike in September over the proposed $1.85-billion investment deal that would have seen the Indian firm lease the airport, among Africa’s busiest, for 30 years, AFP reported.
Ruto also pulled the plug on Adani’s bid for state-owned KETRACO, a proposed $736 million deal that would have seen the Indian firm develop and operate transmission lines across the East African country.
Ruto said that his government would “immediately commence the process of onboarding alternative partners”.
Gautam Adani, the chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group, has been indicted in New York over an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, United States prosecutors have said.
The authorities on Wednesday charged Adani and two other executives at Adani Green Energy, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, with agreeing between 2020 and 2024 to pay more than $250m in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts expected to yield $2bn in profits.
Prosecutors said the renewable energy company also raised more than $3bn in loans and bonds during this period based on false and misleading statements.
Five other people were hit with related criminal conspiracy charges, including two executives of another renewable energy company, and three employees of a Canadian institutional investor.
The Adani Group denied the charges on Thursday.
“The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied,” the conglomerate said in a statement, adding that “all possible legal recourse will be sought.”
Adani Group companies lost about $27bn in market value on Thursday, and Adani Green Energy cancelled a $600m bond sale.
The flagship Adani Enterprises closed down 23 percent in its worst one-day drop since February last year.
Several other firms in the conglomerate, such as Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green, Adani Power, and Adani Energy Solutions, also fell between 7 percent and 19 percent.
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According to court records, a judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and prosecutors plan to hand those warrants to foreign law enforcement, Al Jazeera reported. The case involves alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a US anti-bribery law.
Seven of the eight defendants are Indian citizens and lived in India, while the eighth, Cyril Cabanes, is a dual French Australian citizen who lived in Singapore, prosecutors said.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cabanes, 50, an executive at Azure Power Global. Prosecutors identified Cabanes as one of the Canadian investor’s employees.
Gautam Adani is worth $69.8bn, according to Forbes magazine, making him the world’s 22nd richest and India’s second-richest person.
