Kenya cancels multibillion deals with Indian group

Kenya's President William Ruto has cancelled two major deals involving Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, after the tycoon was indicted for fraud by US prosecutors. In his state-of-the-nation address last week Ruto said the deals had been cancelled based on ‘new information provided by our investigative agencies and partner nations’, BBC News reports. The day before, Adani was charged with fraud by US prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme and concealing it to raise money in the US. Representatives from the Adani Group have denied the allegations and called them ‘baseless’. The Adani Group was set to invest $1.85bn in Kenya's main airport in exchange for a contract to run it for 30 years, as well as a $736m deal with the Energy Ministry to construct power lines. The deals with the Adani group were hugely unpopular in the country, and there were concerns of corruption. The airport deal sparked a strike among airport workers in September, as many feared it would lead to job losses. Energy Minister Opiyo Wandayi told a parliamentary committee there was no bribery or corruption involved in the procurement of the power lines.

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