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Under-fire Maina Kamanda defends trip to study airport security in the US


Starehe MP Maina Kamanda has explained circumstances under which he appeared to have been the only Kenyan invited for a fact finding mission to Atlanta Aiport on security matters.

The legislator told Nairobi News that the visit happened about four months ago and involved lawmakers and technocrats from Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania in addition to the Kenyan officials.

“I was personally invited as the chairman of the Transport committee in the National Assembly and there were MPs the other delegations as well. There were Kenya Airports Authority people and ministry officials and KAA was represented by the chairman at that time, (David) Kimaiyo,” said Mr Kamanda said on Tuesday evening .

He said the trip was paid for by the United States Trade Development Agency, which had organized the tour.

On his verified Twitter account, Mr Kimaiyo posted photographs of the visits on April 29 and 30 in which he appears along with Mr Kamanda and officials of KAA.

In others, he is pictured with delegates from East Africa at a meeting with the US organization in Washington D.C. The team also visited Miami International Airport in Florida.

Kenyans on social media had wondered why the MP was the only one from Kenya whilebit appeared other countries had sent delegations of technocrats on the tour where participants learnt about operations.

Mr Kamanda appeared on CNN Marketplace Africa in a report aired on Monday night and he obviously had no control on who appears on their shots.