Kitui airstrip: why is it underutilized?

Well, to the best of my understanding, there is one major reason as to why Kitui airstrip is underutilized. It is in the fact that Kitui town is quite close to Nairobi. Therefore most people prefer to simply drive from Nairobi to Kitui, rather than flying. I mean, the journey from Nairobi to Kitui is less than two hours by road – so why would anyone fly there? So you find that the Kitui airstrip only comes to life when there is a VIP who has to be flown to Kitui, and that is only once in a while. It is unlike, say, the Wajir airstrip which is very busy, considering that the distance between Nairobi and Wajir is big enough to warrant flights.

Still, I think that as Kenya’s economy grows, and as the middle class grows, we are likely to witness growing demand for facilities like the Kitui airstrip. That is where, for instance, I reckon that the number of monied people from Kitui who live and work in Mombasa is huge enough to sustain a passenger service. Thus, if someone were to launch reliable flights between Mombasa and Kitui, perhaps they could get a decent number of passengers. Whereas the distance between Kitui and Nairobi doesn’t warrant flying, the distance between Mombasa and Kitui is big enough to warrant flights. Someone could even try Kitui to Kampala or Kitui to Kisumu flights. Kitui is home to a huge middle class that could buy tickets for such trips, which could eventually culminate in the Kitui airstrip being upgraded to a full-fledged airport: Kitui airport…. For now though, and until we get people with such visions, Kitui airstrip will have to continue operating below its capacity. But for sure, as the Kenyan middle class grows, the need for Kitui airstrip to be put into proper use is likely to arise, as rich executives see the need to fly from one corner of Kenya to the other, rather than enduring long, torturous drives.