President Ruto keen to sell government’s entire stake in Kenya Airways

Kenya’s government is prepared to sell its entire stake in the East African nation’s loss-making airline, newly elected President William Ruto said.

“I’m willing to sell the whole” of Kenya Airways Plc, Ruto said in an interview on the sidelines of the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington DC on Friday. “I’m not in the business of running an airline that just has a Kenyan flag, that’s not my business.”

Ruto spoke a day after meeting executives from Delta Air Lines Inc., the largest US airline by market value. He declined to provide details of the talks.

“Discussions with Delta are at a preliminary stage,” he said. The government is “looking for partnerships that will make Kenya Airways a profitable entity whatever that means, in whatever configuration, whatever form it takes,” Ruto said.

Kenya Airways, Africa’s third-biggest airline, defaulted on its loans this year, forcing the Kenyan Treasury to take up the obligations. The carrier is 48.9% owned by the government, Air France-KLM SA holds a 7.76% stake, and a group of lenders who swapped their debt for equity in the company control 38.09%.

“If you have someone who wants to buy the whole airline, please, I’d like to have a conversation with them,” Ruto said.