Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya’s national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ), has issued a stark warning that the proposed “Strategic Goods Control Bill, 2026” currently under consideration in the country’s parliament could exacerbate existing flight delays and cancellations unless civil aviation spare parts and services are exempted from the law.
Appearing before the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security, Kenya Airways Company Secretary and Director of Legal Services, Habil A. Waswani, stated that the proposed legislation fears slowing down the importation process of critical aircraft spare parts needed to keep flights operating strictly on schedule.
The Bill, sponsored by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah, aims to regulate the import, export, and transit of strategic and dual-use goods to safeguard national security by preventing them from being diverted for military or terrorist activities. However, Kenya Airways argued that commercial aviation equipment is already subject to rigorous international certification and oversight by global aviation authorities. Therefore, introducing additional layers of domestic scrutiny and clearance processes would create unnecessary bureaucracy and severely harm airline operations.
Waswani urged Parliament to amend Section 3(2) of the Bill or introduce a new clause explicitly exempting civil aircraft, parts, software, and related aviation services certified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) from the legislation, subject to end-use certification. Specifically, the airline proposed that items certified under the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards should be expressly excluded unless they are intentionally diverted for military use.
“Aviation is already a highly regulated safety and security sector,” Waswani told the committee during the public participation session. He emphasized that any component installed on an aircraft must be thoroughly inspected and certified by international bodies before an airline can operate within various global territories. Requiring additional approvals under the Strategic Goods Control framework would only create duplication and operational inefficiencies.
Waswani noted that Kenya Airways currently operates a relatively small fleet of around 34 aircraft. Because of this limited size, when a single aircraft faces a technical grounding, any delay in securing a replacement part immediately disrupts the entire flight schedule. To illustrate this, he cited a recent incident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that developed a technical hitch before a scheduled flight to Dubai, forcing the airline to downgrade passengers to a smaller aircraft.
According to the airline, critical spare parts frequently arrive overnight on inbound flights from long-haul destinations like New York and require immediate customs clearance so that engineers can restore the aircraft for the next day’s operations. The airline linked public complaints regarding frequent delays and cancellations directly to these operational realities, fleet size limitations, and the difficulties of securing parts rapidly.
KQ further warned that introducing another layer of bureaucratic delays without fast-track provisions would heavily damage the airline’s competitiveness against regional giants like Emirates and Ethiopian Airlines, which operate significantly larger fleets and possess greater operational flexibility. Consequently, the airline proposed the establishment of a pre-clearance framework for airline-specific parts to maintain necessary security checks while ensuring swift processing. The parliamentary committee is currently continuing to gather views from stakeholders before presenting its report to the National Assembly.
