The KCAA wanted to bulldoze the houses too close to Wilson Airport. It backtracked when it learned that some of them belong to Vice President William Ruto.

An audit of the security of Wilson Airport carried out in June concluded that the houses situated nearby constituted a serious danger for aircraft taking off and landing. Worse than that, it also raised the fear that terrorists could use the houses as vantage points from which to carry out an attack on the airport. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) therefore devised a plan to demolish some of these homes. It was just about to inform the homeowners of the plan in early October when it suddenly backtracked. To be sure, reading through the list of residences to be demolished, the KCAA board noticed that Vice President William Ruto was the owner of some of them and that his Weston Hotel was also situated in this zone. It then went into reverse gear: in mid-October KCAA management decided to drop their plan to demolish homes near the airport.

*******

Source: Indian Oceans Newsletter, December, 2013.