The National Treasury must come up with a concrete strategy to sort out the mess at Kenya Airways (KQ) lest they continue wasting taxpayers’ money trying to resuscitate the troubled airline.

Clearly, the cost of bailing out KQ while servicing its debt has become a major burden to the taxpayer and the centre can no longer hold.

Therefore, as the government mulls a new move to help KQ pick up its sail, let the decision be bold and well-calculated. That is why plans for a Pan-African airline that onboards other airlines to form a mega airline sounds like a good solution to the challenges facing struggling airlines.

But this will first entail sorting out pilots who must first be on boarded. Kenya must also bring know how to persuade other Pan-African airlines to buy the idea, above all, seeking the ideal strategic investors for the mega project should start in earnest.

Coming from a point of concern, Kenyans would like the National Treasury to make a good call this time because the taxpayers have already paid for the sins of past strategies that hardly bore any results. Several turnaround strategies saw various advisory firms gobbling up billions of taxpayers’ money, attempting to steer KQ to profitability, but they have all borne very little success.

Past attempts to rescue the airline saw KQ tap renowned US-based consultant Seabury Group also hit headwinds and did not master the art to restructure KQ’s debt, and get revival options, and it did not help it cut losses leading to calls for bailouts.

Seabury had taken over from McKinsey which was brought in to oversee KQ’s cost-cutting measures but hit headwinds after 10 months of advisory. Amid all this, there have been attempts to increase government stake to 48.9 per cent in 2017 by conversion of debts to share holding, while a restructuring bid for KQ through a Privately Initiated Investment Proposal (PIIP) flopped in 2019.

Plans to re-nationalise the airline by October 2020 were also dropped in 2021 following concerns over public participation. But the good news is that Treasury has inked new deals and expanding flights and routes, with the planned Pan-African airline yet to take shape.

As Treasury hopes to tap a strategic investor, and probably another strategic advisor, to return KQ to private ownership, the government must remain obligated to repay KQ’s Sh59.7 billion loan. Above all, Treasury must ensure this overture bears fruit this time round.